St. Tammany News

Any surplus money could be used for construction, improvements

With St. Tammany Parish's library system rating 48 out of 66 in Louisiana, St. Tammany Library Board officials will be asking voters to renew the 6.33 mills dedicated to run the parish's 10 branches Oct. 20. "The reason our standings are what they are is that there hasn't been a new library built in the parish since the introduction of the Internet," said Donald Westmoreland assistant library director. "It has been 20 years since a new library facility has gone online in the parish."

The primary funding source that accounts for 92 percent of the annual library budget is the currently collected 6.33 mills. It is the only source of funding currently dedicated to the library system. In actual dollars, it calculates to approximately $19 per person. The national average is approximately $30 person for libraries, and the Louisiana average is at $26. The Baton Rouge average is $46 per person, and Jefferson is at $38.

"Without this funding, we'd have to shut the doors," Westmoreland said of the millage continuation and rededication proposition.

The millage is due to expire in 2008, however the library board wants to put into use Senate Bill 8 authored this year by state Sen. Tom Schedler. This allows any surplus monies to be used for construction, improvements to existing libraries and acquisitions such as books, CD's, computers and rental properties.

Previously, the library board was unable to manage any surplus funding for the betterment of the system, such as renovating properties, as in the case of the Madisonville branch, closed due to storm damage and ADA compliancy issues.

Any surplus monies coming into the system would be from an increase in population, Dr. Argiro Morgan, board president, said.

A millage increase to fund a capital building plan for expansion that would have doubled the size of the St. Tammany Parish library system was defeated in November 2006. This increase would have raised the millage rate to 12.74 mills to be assessed over 25 years and would have raised $152 million needed to upgrade St. Tammany's library system. The increased millage would have cost homeowners an additional $75 a year.

Since its defeat, library officials have gone back to the drawing board to determine how to continue operating with competency in the 21st Century.

The board, led by director Jan Butler, will continue to seek ways to upgrade the system with the development of a new plan for revitalization, once they are guaranteed renewal of the millage.

"But receiving the renewal will determine our advancement," Morgan said.

Current plans to solidify the system, only to bring it back to pre-Katrina state, now include locating property to replace the Pontchartrain branch, opening a business reference academic center next door to the Causeway branch in Mandeville and maintaining rent payments at the retail location sites of the Causeway branch and the Madisonville branch that will reopen on Louisiana Highway 22.

The tax will supply funds to continue such programs as Genealogy Open House, book clubs, summer reading programs, teen nights, cooking classes, bereavement support group meetings, knitting group, Italian classes, romance writers, Whisperings Cemetery History evening and the Walker Percy symposium.