With its public libraries in financial difficulty, North Little Rock's city government will start lending assistance to the William F. Laman Library System to save on library expenses and maintain its programs, Mayor Joe Smith said Tuesday.
Smith met with library personnel Friday to examine what assistance the city could provide to help the library with its problems and keep many programs alive. The library doesn't receive operations funding from the city and is also independent of the Central Arkansas Library System based in Little Rock.
"We're going to help them through figuring out their cash-flow issue," Smith said. "Right now, we're looking at the financial stability of the library and trying to do a two- to five-year plan so we can see what we can do. We're going to try to treat the library as if it were a quasi-city department."
Late last month, library administrators announced that because of budgetary concerns they needed to reduce hours at both the main library, 2801 Orange St., and the Argenta Branch, 420 Main St., effective Dec. 1. They also announced the elimination of 11 staff positions starting Jan. 1 and the end of many programs and exhibits in 2015 and 2016.
Five national exhibits for next year at the main Laman Library's exhibit hall, it was announced last week, would have to be retained because of contractual obligations and prepaid deposits. However, on Monday, the library canceled "Infamy: Dec. 7, 1941", a photographic exhibition about the Pearl Harbor attack, set to be rented from the National World War II Museum in New Orleans and scheduled for Oct. 30-Dec. 7. It was set to be the year's fifth and final exhibit.
No national exhibits will be held at the Argenta branch next year. All of 2016's planned exhibits have been canceled for both libraries.
The "Infamy" exhibit costs $3,000 in rental fees with half of that cost due at its reservation, according to exhibition contracts released Tuesday by the library. Because the cancellation is almost a year in advance, the library could retain its deposit if the exhibit can be scheduled elsewhere. The contract was signed May 6 by former Laman Library Director Jeff Baskin, who died in September.
Under an arrangement with North Little Rock, the city finance department, maintenance staff and city attorney's office can assist the library system to prevent it from needing to outsource the type of work they provide.
"There are so many things we can do for the library that won't cost anything," Smith said. "We feel very confident that the library will be able to maintain most all of their programs with the city's support."
Also, the city -- or more specifically, the mayor -- will now serve as the Laman Library System's spokesman. Media questions Tuesday were referred to the mayor's office.
"We felt like it would be in good partnership and be best for one person to speak to the media, instead of five of us," Smith said. "That would be me."
The mayor also said he wants to examine a restructuring of bonds used to finance the purchase and construction of the former post office building that was renovated into the Argenta Branch library in an effort to help with the library's cash-flow problem. The branch opened in April.
Interim Director Mary Furlough and board of trustees Chairman Ron Oliver said last month that much of the financial difficulties are attributed to the $3.5 million Argenta Branch that was costly to renovate. The 83-year-old building also has had some unexpected costs for maintenance.
The library has about $680,000 in monthly bond payments, two on the Argenta branch and one on the main branch, with the latter debt to be retired in 2017. The library makes its payments to the North Little Rock Public Building Authority, which was used to acquire the loans. Smith said he expects to meet with the library board after a restructuring.
"I think we can make it all happen," Smith said. "I think we can save them a tremendous amount of money."
Those savings won't be seen fast enough to save the 11 lost jobs or return the library to full hours anytime soon, he said.
"What they've done, we will continue that for the next quarter," he said. "At least until I get everything worked out on the cash flow, then we could be looking at the possibility of adding people or adding hours or adding programs. Everything is going in the right direction. Laman Library is something for us to be proud of and that's not going to change."
Metro on 12/17/2014