Scottsville library to become 1st victim? Supervisor lashes out at talks of closure

The regional library budget committee formally recommended Friday closing the Scottsville library if Albemarle County goes forward with proposed funding cuts.

Albemarle Supervisor Duane Snow, however, said closing the Scottsville branch would be unacceptable.

“If they can’t find 5 percent from each [library] system to reduce hours, to buy less books and keep all the libraries open and they’re insisting on closing one or two libraries, I would be in favor of not giving them any money — until they got those things figured out,” Snow said.

In response to county officials asking agencies what their budgets would look like with 5 percent to 10 percent less money from Albemarle County, leaders of the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library have warned they would close Scottsville’s library if 5 percent were cut and close the Crozet branch if 10 percent were cut.

County Executive Robert W. Tucker Jr. released a budget recommendation Thursday that called for a 5 percent cut to the regional library system. If supervisors approve Tucker’s recommendation, the regional library budget committee unanimously agreed, the Scottsville branch should close and hours would be reduced at the Crozet branch.

Anthony Townsend, president of the library Board of Trustees, said the Board of Supervisors is capable of funding the regional libraries but is instead poised to cut real-estate taxes to the tune of $90 for the average household and thereby cause major damage to area services.

“It’s a manufactured crisis,” he said.

Representatives of the regional library’s budget committee agreed Friday that there’s little room to cut from the Scottsville and Crozet library budgets — arguing that employees are already overworked and underpaid — and that the best way to swallow a 5 percent cut is closing the Scottsville branch, reducing operation hours at the Crozet branch and cutting other funding from the budget, such as money for facility repairs.

Assistant County Executive Bryan Elliott said county staff is asking that no more than 5 percent be cut from the operations at the Scottsville and Crozet branches — which are funded entirely by Albemarle — and that at least 5 percent cuts be made to regional services that Albemarle helps fund along with other localities in the region.

“As was made clear by the budget presentation [Thursday], the county does not propose or support the closing of the Scottsville branch library,” Albemarle spokeswoman Lee Catlin said. “The decision by the regional library board to close the Scottsville library would certainly be a serious point of discussion for the county.”

Library budget committee members said they were unwilling to cut regional services, considering that all of the other localities in the partnership have essentially agreed to provide either the same amount or increased funding.

Tucker’s proposal reduces funding in fiscal 2011 by $159,000 compared with the current fiscal year and also doesn’t cover increased insurance costs for library employees.

The budget committee considered cutting budget items that include $2,000 in employee appreciation awards and several thousand dollars for advertisements. It also debated freezing vacant employee position that alone would cost more than $140,000 per year to fill.

However, committee members decided against those cuts, saying employees are overworked and paid far less than most county employees.

The budget committee’s recommendation is being sent to the library Board of Trustees.

Snow responded late Friday night: “Everyone else in the county has been working extremely hard to get to a budget that we can all live with and for the library to take the position that it’s our way or no way … doesn’t sound reasonable to me.”