Pages are turning in Barrie Public Library’s 2023 budget.
It will be presented Wednesday evening to council and asks for a 2.43 per cent increase in the city’s grant, to about $9.6 million from $9.37 million last year, or $228,000 more.
Lauren Jessop, the Barrie Public Library’s chief executive officer, said it was given a target or direction of a 2.5 per cent increase by the previous council.
“The (library) board felt really strongly that we should try our best to come in either at that or under that,” she said of the 2.5 per cent increase. “You know we did so much last year in 2022, so that in 2023 we’re just on a maintenance budget.
“We’re just tweaking things that we did last year, looking at some more improvements, but nothing major," Jessop added.
Last year, of course, the Holly Community Library opened in August at 555 Essa Rd., complementing the downtown’s Barrie Public Library on Worsley Street and Painswick branch on Dean Avenue. At 4,500 square feet, the Holly branch offers about 40,000 titles — books, audio books, movies and shows on DVD and Blu-ray.
Jessop noted that, like everyone else, the Barrie Public Library is facing inflation costs, especially in its library materials and from vendors.
“So the board decided … that we will take money from our reserves to support our collections for this year, so that we don’t have to hit the tax base with that increase, because it (inflation) is unique,” she said, noting $100,000 is being taken from library reserves.
And the library is facing other financial pressures.
Current Barrie Public Library staffing levels are 41 full-time employees, 57 part-time employees and 177 volunteers, who assist with the visiting library service, the downtown cafe, programs, etc.
In total, salaries are increasing 2.5 per cent, Jessop said.
“This increase includes individual increments, where achieved, as well as the contractual increase of 2.0 per cent for union and non-union groups,” she said. “The cost of benefits has increased 3.5 per cent this year.”
But the Barrie Public Library is also becoming more popular, better used, by city residents. There is an increase this year of 9,727 library members who have a library card, bringing that total to about 34,000.
And there’s a 3.7 per cent increase in digital checkouts — e-books, audio books, digital music, movies that can be streamed.
“All the stuff people can access through our digital library,” Jessop said.
With grants to the library and fees collected, along with the municipal revenue received from the city, the total Barrie Public Library budget is increasing to $10.2 million this year from almost $9.96 million last year, or 2.58 per cent more.
But the 2023 maintenance budget doesn’t mean the Barrie Public Library isn’t looking at new programs to serve the library community.
“This summer we’re hoping to put a book bike out on the road, an e-bike with a trailer,” Jessop said. “We’re working out the details and actually applying for a grant.
“It will basically bring our library to the beach, into the parks and we can kind of find people where they are, out in the community and offer them programming and resources, so it’s kind of fun," she added. “It’s visibility and letting people know that the library is not maybe the stuffy place that they remember from being a kid.”
The city is also receiving more than $1.4 million in federal funding to revitalize and construct play courts and playgrounds, install new energy-efficient lighting throughout the city — and rehabilitate the landscape at John Edwin Coupe Park, right beside the downtown library branch, while renewing the streetscaping around it.
The Barrie Public Library's downtown branch was built in 1996 and is 56,200 sq. ft., while the Painswick branch is 15,000 sq. ft. and was built in 2011. There are plans for more branches in Barrie — in community centres planned in the Hewitt's and Salem areas in the former Innisfil land, at 15,000 sq. ft. in size.
The Barrie Police Services Board and the County of Simcoe, city service partners, too, will also be presenting their budgets to city council Wednesday.
At this stage in the city’s 2023 operating and capital budget process, Barrie homeowners face a 3.95 per cent property tax increase. This would mean $182 more for a typical Barrie home assessed at $365,040, which had taxes last year of $4,612. Adding $182 would make this year’s property taxes on that home $4,794.
This breaks down to $2,694 or 56 per cent for city services, $1,541 or 32 per cent for the city’s service partners (city police, County of Simcoe and Barrie Public Library) and $559 or 12 per cent for education.
The annual budget sets service levels, along with the taxes and fees to pay for city services, as well as water and sewer (wastewater) rates.
Barrie councillors begin budget talks Feb. 8-9, with city council approval slated for Feb. 15.
