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A
SSOCIATED
N
EWSPAPERS OF
M
ICHIGAN
P
AGE
5
March 22, 2012
B
ELLEVILLE
- R
OMULUS
The last sixmonths have proved
how valuable the library is to the
City of Romulus.
Since it reopened in July, the
Romulus Public Library has had
459 children take part in the sum-
mer reading program, 180 take
part in the story time and a recent
author's night event drew 45 peo-
ple. The computers face a line of
users from the time the facility
opens until the part-time staff
readies to dim the lights-as many
as 11,000 since September.
“We've had a very good year
with very little money,” said Sylvia
Makowski, president of the
Friends of theRomulus Library.
Makowski and members of the
library board met with the
Romulus City Council recently in a
study session to determine the best
way to ensure that the library not
only continues to operate, but
improves to better serve the needs
of residents of Romulus and near-
by communities.
Makowski said she and the
boardmembers were working on a
five-year strategy for the library
that would overhaul the collection
and make the library a more rele-
vant facility for users.
And that, she said, would
requiremoremoney.
The city allocates about .12mills
toward the funding of the library,
according to Romulus Finance
Director Debra Hoffman. The
library operates for 29 hours a
week with three part-time staff
members on a budget of about
$150,000-but fully 40 percent of
those funds come from outside the
city and, without a dedicated fund-
ing mechanism in place, those
sources would go away, Makowski
said.
In terms of size of the facility
and population of the area served,
Romulus qualifies as a Class 5
library, she said. Similar facilities
have an operating budget of about
$1.5 million, a staff of 6.5 full-time
equivalent (FTE) employees and
$220,000 to spend on books and
media annually. Class 4 libraries
have a budget of about $880,000,
with about 5.5 FTEs and a book
budget of about $91,000.
“We're at the bottom of the bar-
rel. We've got the lowest budget,”
she told the council. “We have an
operating budget that is less than
half the budget of the second-to-
lowest library.”
The library meets one require-
ment to be eligible for state fund-
ing: all of the staff is certified. The
library does not meet the state
qualification of a minimum of .3
mills in funding, however.
Also, the state requires libraries
that receive state funding to have
at least 20 percent of its material
be less than 5 years old. The
Romulus library has only one aisle
of new books. Other communities
won't even share their collection
because the Romulus library's is so
old, she said. Romulus patrons
have to continually borrow from
other libraries in The Library
Network, but the Romulus library
has little, if anything, to offer in
return.
“We're draining resources of
other communities that see fit to
fund their libraries,” Makowski
said.
Makowski said the minimal
staffing is also a problem.With only
three part-time employees, they've
had to rely heavily on volunteers.
“That gets hard when you have
to ask someone: can you spend six
hours aweek?”
Makowski said the library board
plans to survey the residents to
determine what they'd like to see
in the library-what they use or why
they don't come-in hopes of factor-
ing that into the five-year plan that
shouldbe complete inMay.
Romulus officials are also going
to determine the best way to
secure more funding for the
library. A .3 mill levy would gener-
ate about $229,000 at today's rate,
and it would also ensure that the
library could keep state funding.
The city could ask for a dedicated
millage or could reallocate some of
the existing tax levy to fund it.
“If they don't get that, it's just not
going to continue. They're going to
lose so much,” said Mayor Alan
Lambert. “We really can't let that
happen. The library is too impor-
tant.”
“I don't knowhowwe can not do
this,” said Council President Leroy
Burcroff. “To lose that additional
funding would potentially cripple
us.”
‘Tiger paw prints’
delay use of field
The newathletic field at BellevilleHigh
School remains as pristine and unused as
the day it was installed. To date, the field
has not been used for any school or com-
munity activity.
It will remain unused until it meets
both state and national standards, current-
ly violated by the large orange paw print
across the 45 and 50 yard lines, according
to Superintendent of Schools Michael Van
Tassel.
Van Tassel told members of the Van
Buren Public School Board of Education
last week that the 50 and 45 yard lines
need repaired tomeet the national regula-
tions a condition of the contract the district
signed with the company that installed the
field. The large orange tiger paw print
interrupts the yard lines and regulations
require that the lines are clearly visible
without impairment across the field.
Van Tassel told the board members that
the district has not yet accepted the proj-
ect as complete from the contractor. He
said if the school used the field or accepts
the work as finished, the district will be
responsible for funding the corrections.
Van Tassel said the district is currently
in negotiations with the company that
installed the field regarding the needed
alterations. The district would like a
lighter orange marker through the paw
print sections which interrupt the yard
lines while the installer has suggested con-
tinuing the white lines currently in place
on the field.
Van Tassel said that the only area in use
is the track. He said that teachers walk stu-
dents out to use the track so as not to take
any chance of disturbing the field.
“If we take ownership. We have to fix
it,” he told the board members. He also
explained that last year when the track
teamstudents ran in the area streets, there
were complaintswith the school.
Van Tassel denied that there is any use
of the field by anyone and that rumors that
quarterback clinics had taken place there
weremisinformation.
The district may be able to take owner-
ship of the field in June or July, Van Tassel
said.
We're at the bottom of the barrel.
We've got the lowest budget.
We have an operating budget that is less than
half the budget of the second-to-lowest library.
”
Library reports increased use in past 6 months
Bingo
In celebration
of March as
R e a d i n g
Month, Wick
E l eme n t a r y
School about
100 students,
parents and
staff members
came together
to enjoy an
evening
of
Bingo for Books. Each student who won a bingo game got to select a book to read
and keep and at the end of the evening, each student left with at least one book to
take home. Kody Bates, at left, Steven Bates, Jacob Hughes and Aaron Hughes enjoy
the evening fun.