Local News
| News | Sports | Business | Opinions | Columns | Entertainment |
| Science/Technology | Weather | Archives | E-mail Us |

Thursday, June 1, 2000

City budget woes hurt libraries

Museums and parks also feeling the pain

By Jonathan Osborne
Caller-Times

David Pellerin/Caller-Times

Karen Van Kirk, manager of technical services at the Central Library, holds a repair manual that could be replaced. This may not happen soon if the city cuts $289,332 from the library’s budget.

Slashing $300,000 from Corpus Christi's public libraries next year is more than just numbers on paper for Karen Van Kirk, a manager whose been with Central Library since 1982.
   "It means poorer service. People have to wait in line longer," Van Kirk said. "We don't have enough staff to keep up with everything."
   The library and its librarians, along with many agencies around the city, are bearing the weight of the city's continuing financial crisis, which includes a hiring freeze and $6 million in across-the-board proposed budget cuts next year.

David Pellerin/Caller-Times

New books that need to be catalogued and shelved sit idle because the library is understaffed, Van Kirk says.

   The library and its librarians, along with many agencies around the city, are bearing the weight of the city's continuing financial crisis, which includes a hiring freeze and $6 million in across-the-board proposed budget cuts next year.
   As of Wednesday, the library was down 17 employees, 12 of whom are full-time. And if the city axes $289,332 from the library's budget, next year, the story won't have a happy ending.
   "It will get worse," Van Kirk said. "We're going to have to reduce hours. There's no doubt about that."
   But the library isn't the only public service that may take a hit.
   The city's fire, police, parks and recreation, street services and solid waste departments all are set to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding, including:
  

Reducing the fire department's budget by $804,608 by cutting positions.
  

Eliminating $393,289 from the police department, partly by eliminating two assistant police chiefs, a crime analyst and office assistants.
  

Reducing the health department by eliminating custodial workers, animal control officers and office assistants.
  

Taking $723,133 from the Park and Recreation Department by eliminating services in 2001 such as Cole Park concerts, guided tours through Heritage Park, lifeguards at Corpus Christi Beach and a public swimming pool program.
  

Pulling $573,933 from solid waste services by reducing garbage collection to once a week.
  

Eliminating $774,004 from street services, which would include reducing street resurfacing programs.
  

Cutting $289,332 from the library.
   "There are going to some recommended cuts and reductions that are just not going to be popular," Mayor Loyd Neal said.
   Nothing set in stone
   The preliminary budget is only what staff has recommended, he said, meaning nothing yet is set in stone.

David Pellerin/Caller-Times

Rosie Cortez, children’s services coordinator, displays a book that is being held together with tape.

   "There's a lot of give and take in this," Neal said. "The council and I are just going to spend a lot of time asking, 'What are the short-term effects and what are the long-term effects?' More importantly, we're going to have to end up prioritizing."
   But many of the cuts will hit agencies, like the library, that already are operating on reduced budgets.
   The median age of books in the library is 12 years, Van Kirk said.
   Aging books
   "Half are older than 12 years and half are newer than 12 years," she said. "It really ought to be six or seven years. It means that our materials are older than what they ought to be."
   The library's budget for books, periodicals and electronic equipment without the cuts already is half that of the national average for a city that's the same size as Corpus Christi, she said.

Proposed reductions in city budget
Department	Positions reduced	Net reduction
Mayor		$ 3,725
City Council		$ 6,200
Administrative Services		$ 17,602
City Attorney	1	$ 128,645
City Manager	1	$ 49,011
City Secretary		$ 45,889
Development Services		$ 157,215
Finance		$ 192,300
Human Relations	5	$337,300
Human Resources	4	$ 137,405
Communications & Quality Management	1	$ 43,124
Internal Audit	3	$ 185,693
Management & Budget	2	$ 52,573
Municipal Court - Judicial	2	$ 43,809
Municipal Court - Administration	9	$ 211,693
Museum	9	$ 91,062
Planning	2	$ 104,259
Fire		$ 804,608
Police	9	$ 393,289
Health	10	$ 284,812
Library	9	$ 289,332
Parks & Recreation	32	$ 723,133
Street Services	11	$ 774,004
Solid Waste Services	16	$ 573,933
Community Development	4	$ 196,456
Traffic Engineering		$ 33,465
Street Lighting		$ 75,000
Downtown Mgmt District		$ 9,927
Total Reductions	130	$ 5,965,464

   "With this next budget reduction, it will slip under half," Van Kirk said.
   Past reductions are already noticeable to patrons.
   Shortage 'evident'
   Dauris Granberry, who has used the Central Library and its northwest branch for more than 20 years, said the shortage of newer books is evident.
   "Sometimes, I'm on the waiting list behind 20 people for a new popular book," she Granberry, who uses the library for reference materials as well as pleasure reading. She's also noticed the shortage of staff, she said.
   "It makes me sad when jobs are going unfilled because there's not money," she said. "It concerns me that we're shortchanging the children and the students of Corpus who use the library."
   Dorothy Goodwin, who's been a patron of the library since the 1960s, recently started volunteering there to help out with the personnel shortage.
   "Its gotten worse and worse and worse," Goodwin said. "If you have a reference question or need help finding a book, you're going to have two or three people ahead of you. I think they're down to one person on the reference desk."
   Sometimes, if people get tired of waiting, they give up, she said.
   "It's a slowdown of services to a certain extent, or you just don't get them," she said.
   Van Kirk said a librarian's only option is to reduce how many hours the library stays open, a step already being contemplated. As part of its proposed cuts, the Central Library's operation would be reduced from staying open 70 hours a week to 50 hours a week. Branch libraries will be open 48 hours a week instead of 56 hours a week.
   The library isn't the only public service losing operating hours.
   The Corpus Christi Museum of Science and Natural History, which is facing $91,062 in budget cuts, has to close for a whole day.
   "We're going to close the museums on Mondays," said Rick Stryker, the museum's director. The museum during the summer usually extends its hours of operation to 6 p.m. Starting this summer, that extension won't happen.
   "We're closing at 5 as we normally do," he said.
   The cutbacks also hurt because fewer people - the museum staff is down about eight positions - are having to do the same jobs, he said.
   "You can't cease operations," Stryker said.
   But some programs, such as a youth basketball program in the Ben Garza area, are considered expendable.
   City staff has once again proposed eliminating the program - which would save $8,000 - that caters to about 150 children who don't have the transportation means to participate in other area basketball leagues.
   "They can't get to where the programs are," said Bob Heil, the city's athletic director. But all the departments were asked where cuts could be made, and Heil said the first targets are those programs, which cost the city money, but produce no revenue.
   "That was Ben Garza," he said. The same cut was made last year, but an anonymous organization stepped in to fund the program. This year, that private money is not there, he said.
   The council will begin discussing the budget June 13 before they take their final vote toward the end of July.
   Between then and now, the council has a lot of work to do, Neal said.
   "We've got to find about $6 million," he said. "(We need) to get some kind of feeling for what the citizens are willing to accept, what the council is willing to accept. We're going to start listening and learning."
  
  

---

Staff writer Jonathan Osborne can be reached at 886-3716 or by e-mail at osbornej@caller.com

| Talk about this story | Next Story | Home |

---

[ Printer-friendly version ]
[ Subscribe to newspaper ]

SEND THIS PAGE TO A FRIEND

---

  © 2000, a Scripps Howard newspaper. All rights reserved.