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Impact to Phillipsburg Library Services based on Budget of $555,180 with Furloughs April 28, 2020
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Dear Residents of Phillipsburg, You may by now have heard the unfortunate news regarding the town’s current budget for the Phillipsburg Library. This budget hurts the library in every way imaginable. I am writing this to outline the facts as it pertains to what this latest budget cut means for the Phillipsburg Library and its overall services in the year 2021 and possibly beyond if these cuts remain the foundation for library funding in 2022.
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- 3 part-time staff members will be furloughed for a total of 16 weeks each.
- 2 full-time staff members will be furloughed for a total of 8 weeks each.
This means that the library will only be able to provide services in an extremely limited capacity for a period of 4 months. A minimum of two months will see almost no services provided by the library. Curbside pickup and computer use appointments will only be possible if the two remaining staff members not being furloughed are able to come up with an adequate plan that would provide for some of these services. A tentative plan would look like this:
- Computer use would be limited to 1 hour per day in the morning.
- Curbside pickup would be limited to 1 hour in the afternoon.
Both of these services would be contingent on both non-furloughed staff members being present. If one or both are sick, the library would not be able to provide any services for that day or days. The Children’s and Adult Summer Reading Programs will only occur in an extremely limited format due to the furloughs. There also would be no bookkeeper present to process and submit bills for payment, as well as to keep track of expenditures/accounts.
We will not be able to resume any type of widescale services till sometime in September depending on when the furloughs are agreed to, and approved by all parties (library board, staff, and Civil Service Commission).
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- With a staff member retirement, the library will be down to 3 full-time public-facing staff members and 2 part-time public facing staff members. The other full-time staff member is the Library Director, and due to the Library Director’s primary duties, the ability to help out with public-facing work is limited. Of the other 2 part-time staff members 1 is the bookkeeper and the other is the custodian, so neither are qualified to do any public-facing work.
- The library will only be open from Monday thru Friday.
- Weekend hours will not be possible.
- Actual public hours will be limited compared to what normal hours were in 2019.
- Only two days of the week will see any evening hours.
- Ability to open to the public is entirely contingent on all public-facing staff members being present. If staff members are sick, or on vacation, their absence(s) will impact what, if any open hours the library has for the public.
- Once the regular State Aid requirements for NJ public libraries is resumed, the Phillipsburg Library will be unable to meet those requirements, and will no longer receive a yearly state aid check from the New Jersey State Library.
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- There will be small amounts of money left to purchase some new physical materials for the library in the way of books for adults, children, teens, as well as a small amount of DVDs.
- The library used to spend approximately $10,000 on print magazines and newspapers. Only $2,000 will remain for these items. Many of the subscriptions will have to be cancelled.
- We have tried to preserve our online services as best as possible as there are valuable online resources the library provides via digital content and databases.
- The Board of Trustees is open to using small portions of the library’s reserve funds in order to make purchases, but the reserve funds were never intended to solely makeup for budget shortfalls of the current nature.
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- The library’s ILS will continue to be paid for by the State Aid check, but as previously mentioned, if the Phillipsburg Library is unable to meet the State Aid requirements once reinstated, payment will have to come from the municipal budget allocation in 2022.
- New PC purchases are not an option due to lack of funding. Any new equipment will have to be obtained via future grants.
- Any in-house technology issues will have to be solved by the two staff members with some IT background. If neither are able to solve technology issues, there will be no money for external IT support from a vendor. That would lead to a scenario where if any of the network equipment were to either fail, or if the library encounters a largescale issue that requires outside support, the issue will not be able to be fixed. This could potentially lead to the library being unable to have network connectivity.
- Software purchases which are necessary to upgrade software or maintain existing software such as Envisionware, the computer management software the library uses will not be able to be continued.
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- The town has agreed to cover all building maintenance expenditures. While helpful, this is a number that fluctuates from year to year depending on the needs of the library. The town also owns and insures the building, so it is in their best interest to continue upkeep of the building lest it fall into severe disrepair, or results in indoor damage due to unfixed exterior building issues.
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This budget does not benefit the library, the library staff, and most importantly the town residents who have come to expect a certain level of services from the Phillipsburg Free Public Library. This budget does not allow for any way to replace previously lost positions, including an upcoming retirement. Existing staff is highly committed to providing the best possible services to town residents, but their efforts will be hampered by the lack of adequate funding. No other department in the town of Phillipsburg has been subjected to budgetary cuts and staffing reductions in the manner the Phillipsburg Library has. In terms of total budgeted positions eliminated since 2020, 70% of all budget positions eliminated across town departments have been borne by the Phillipsburg Library. Below is a chart showing the losses of funding and staff since 2016. Part of the budget losses were due to the agreement with the Warren County Library agreement being terminated, so a decrease in budget was to be expected. However, the Mayor and Town Council have opted to continue decreasing funding further. Consider that in 1985, the Phillipsburg Free Public Library was funded by the town to the amount of $350,000. When adjusted for inflation, that $350,000 in 1985 now represents in 2021 dollars, $878,738.86 at the time of writing.
If you wish to see the Phillipsburg Library funded at a respectable and adequate level, we ask that you email and call your Mayor and members of Town Council to let them know your thoughts and opinions on this matter in a respectful manner. We also urge that you attend the Tuesday May 4, 2021 town council meeting to make your thoughts known to Town Council. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and we hope you understand that the present challenge facing the library is immense, and that the future of the Phillipsburg Library is in jeopardy if things continue as they have since the start of 2020. Sincerely,
David Krolak Library Director Phillipsburg Free Public Library
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