JEFFERSON — Ashtabula County Budget Commission has agreed to a new formula for dividing up the state’s Public Library Fund allocation in 2009, which seven of eight libraries recently presented, according to County Auditor Roger Corlett. A hearing on the proposed formula changes for next year was held Aug. 27 with Grand Valley Public Library officials against the change.
“With seven of the eight libraries in agreement we pretty well had to go along with this change the majority presented. It would have been a lot tougher if there were only five agreeing to it,” Corlett said Friday.
The auditor said the commission sent a letter to the directors and board members of the eight libraries of their decision to go with the new formula for a five-year period. The 2009 estimated PLF is $3.88 million, but it could be less, Corlett said.
The PLF totals would be distributed as follows: Andover, $276, 131.54; Ashtabula County District Library, $1,666,627.11; Harbor-Topky in Ashtabula city, $414,239.30; Conneaut, $554,632.61; Henderson Memorial in Jefferson, $322,470.56; Kingsville, $274,356.60; Grand Valley in Orwell, $184,126.59; and Rock Creek, $191,573.42.
GV Public Library board president, Shawn Holmes said he knew of the budget commission’s decision, but had not seen the letter.
“We were against this change. Many years of underfunding for our library doesn’t make this right. Our board will need to discuss the decision,” Holmes said reacting to the CBC decision.
Corlett said to his knowledge ACDL officials have not dismissed the lawsuit appeal they filed in 2007 over the old formula the libraries in the county were using.
In his letter to the libraries, Corlett said, “We would also caution you that the 2009 estimated revenue, given by the state, is 4.1 percent higher than their most recent revised estimate for 2008 funding. This estimate should be used with extreme caution because it appears to not take into consideration the revised estimate.”
The parameters used to allocate the PLF to each independent library in the county includes numbers of full-time employees, circulation, square footage of building, the percentage each library spends on material, and population of their areas.
Corlett at the Aug. 27 meeting told the libraries that the 2008 revenue was revised to $3.73 million, a loss of $70,000.
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Ashtabula County Budget Commission changes libraries’ ’09 funding formula
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