Library starts new chapter with NLR sales-tax proposal

Library branch manager Kathy Sarna (left) and library assistant Autumn Thomas sort books in the small children’s area of Laman Library’s Argenta branch in North Little Rock. The downtown post office building could be the new location for the library if a proposed tax increase passes next month.
Library branch manager Kathy Sarna (left) and library assistant Autumn Thomas sort books in the small children’s area of Laman Library’s Argenta branch in North Little Rock. The downtown post office building could be the new location for the library if a proposed tax increase passes next month.

— When children arrive for story time at the Laman Library’s Argenta branch downtown, space usually gets pretty cramped.

“We have to squeeze them in down here on the floor,” branch manager Kathy Sarna said. “It’s not just the children, but the moms and dads and the presenters who do the reading. ... We have outgrown our space for sure.”

North Little Rock’s planned use for a sales tax increase includes at least $2.5 million over five years to move the library branch from its 2,550 square feet at 509 Main St. into the downtown post office building at 420 Main St., which is scheduled to close.

The sales tax election is Nov. 8. Early voting in North Little Rock will be conducted from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Nov. 1-4 at the Laman Library at 28th and Orange streets. The city election coincides with a statewide election for a reauthorization of highway bonds.

The tax proposal has two parts: A 0.5 percent permanent sales tax to be divided evenly between capital improvements and general operations, and a 0.5 percent tax to expire March 31, 2017, for capital improvements.

If approved by voters, the taxes would add to North Little Rock’s current 1 percent sales tax that’s charged on top of a 6 percent state sales tax and a 1 percent Pulaski County sales tax.

The library funding would be included in the capital improvements tax, which is expected to generate $500,000 per year for the library.

The U.S. Postal Service hasn’t included the 80-yearold downtown post office on its national list of closures, but Laman Library Executive Director Jeff Baskin said postal officials have told him and Mayor Patrick Hays that it will close, probably by early next year. The city will be first in line to buy the twostory building, he added.

“It’s going to close, and they’ll sell it after the first of January,” Baskin said. “Unless something unknown intervenes or they ask for some outrageous price, it’ll be sold to the city,” he said. “According to law, it has to be sold at market value.”

However, that selling price is unknown, he added. Renovating the building for use as a library is estimated to cost $1.8 million, he said. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places and is within the Argenta Historic District, so renovations will have to follow strict guidelines that can add to the cost.

The post office building, Baskin said, has 5,500 square feet on the first floor and in the basement. A second floor has 4,300 square feet of usable space. Much of the space has gone unused.

“We’re going to use the whole building,” Baskin said. “We’re going to build several meeting rooms in the basement, so meeting rooms can be available downtown and be made available to the general public.”

Hays has mentioned in his sales tax pitches using the proposed-tax library funds to create new branches, possibly one in the Rose City/Glenview area, in the city’s growing west end, or both. However, adding branches, Baskin said, would come after moving the already established downtown branch to the larger building.

“If we don’t use all of that money, it will go back in the pot,” Baskin said. “Whatever is left we still can use to consider a branch. It all depends on how much is left and how much that building is going to cost.

“The purchase and renovations are the first things,” he said. “We think that will take every bit of the $2.5 million.”

Laman Library is independent of the Central Arkansas Library System based in Little Rock and receives no city funds for operations. The library’s almost $3 million budget is mainly funded through a 3-mill library tax on Pulaski County property tax bills.

The library has previously received funds from the city’s current 1 percent sales tax for expansion and city bond issue renovation of the Laman Library Plaza that freed up money for the $450,000 Argenta branch, the library’s first to open five years ago.

But the branch has outgrown its space, Baskin said. It also plays host to demonstrations by local artists each month for the Third Friday Argenta Artwalk.

“The Argenta branch is very small,” Baskin said. “So it’s very difficult to do programming, and the children’s collection has gotten way too big for that space.”

For instance, Sarna said, the children’s summer reading program has grown from 89 participants two years ago to 183 this year. Preschoolers still arrive with their parents during the day for reading time and crafts, and older children arrive after school. All of the library services are free.

The branch also has six flat-screen computer terminals available for the public, with additional computers planned after the proposed expansion.

“They always stay full,” Sarna said of the public computers.

If it moves, the Argenta branch would be relocating from one historic site to another. The library branch opened in June 2006 on the first floor of the old Argenta fire and police station. A fireman’s pole toward the front of the branch provides a nod to the building’s history.

“Everybody loves the fire pole,” Sarna said. “And they all want to slide down it.”

There’s a campaign website with information about the proposal at www.northlittlerockforward.com.

Arkansas, Pages 7 on 10/24/2011

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