Library system to lease 24 more parking spaces

— Four months after shutting down its Aerospace branch to save money, the Central Arkansas Library System is planning to spend $550,000 on a 10-year parking lease.

The long-term agreement with the city of Little Rock will provide the system’s Main Library with 24 more spaces in the River Market parking deck for a total of 100 spaces.

By paying the $550,000 upfront, the library system could save $170,000 over the next 10 years, said Bobby Roberts, the library system’s director.

The library system currently pays $60 a month for each of the 76 spaces it has in the deck. The library has another 20 spaces in an underground parking lot it owns.

Roberts has talked about the possibility of building a parking structure of some kind on the public lot in front of the Main Library, but said Thursday that leasing the spots in the city’s existing deck across the street would be a better deal for both entities involved.

Roberts wants the additional parking spots so employees can avoid parking in the library’s Rock Street lot, which is set aside for patrons.

Library trustees did not need to sign off on the lease, but Roberts told them Thursday of his intentions to enter into the lease. City Manager Bruce Moore has not yetsigned off on the lease.

Roberts said he expects some flak over the expenditure because the library closed down the Aerospace branch in east Little Rock in May to raise $180,000 of the $1.5 million needed to cover losses stemming from a property-tax lawsuit.

A group of Little Rock residents sued the library, the city of Little Rock and Pulaski County in May 2008, saying a property-tax increase voters approved in December 2007 shouldn’t have appeared on their tax bills until 2009.

The Arkansas Supreme Court agreed with the residents in a December 2009 ruling that found property owners paid about $4.7 million in new taxes a year early. The taxes were levied on real estate and personal property, such as automobiles.

About $3.2 million of the property tax in question is in escrow in Little Rock’s hands, and the library has to raise the remaining $1.5 million. How or when property owners will get refunds is up to Pulaski County Circuit Judge Timothy Fox, who has yet to decide or schedule final hearings.

The library system will have the $1.5 million by the end of the year, Roberts said.

Tax dollars will not be spent on the parking lease. The $550,000 will come from $1.2 million in reserves built up from various fines and parking fees, Roberts said.

Asked how he would defend the spending to East Little Rock residents who lost their branch, Roberts said patrons “weren’t going to Aerospace. They were going to Williams and down here [to the Main Library].”

The Aerospace branch was the least-used branch in the library system, which is part of the reason Roberts recommended closing it. The parking lease is a one-time cost, whereas the library was an ongoing operational expense, he said.

A recent Downtown Partnership survey on attitudes about downtown and Main Street showed that 32 percent of the 1,728 respondents had free parking courtesy of their employers. Another 41.4 percent responded that they had no cost to park. The remaining participants said they paid for their own parking.

Arkansas, Pages 10 on 09/24/2010

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