GRAND RAPIDS — Area residents have been anxiously awaiting details on the future of the Grand Rapids Area Library.
The city and Itasca County have been going back and forth on funding since May, with no real action or hard numbers.
But the recently shared first drafts of the city and county budgets offer some early clarity, as well as notes from the city-county “Library Study Group.”
Based on the initial numbers, the Grand Rapids library is looking at roughly an 8.5% reduction in tax revenue.
City leaders are proposing to reduce its library levy by $120,000, or 14.5%.
Itasca County leaders don’t plan to increase their library levy, like the city asked, according to Commissioner John Johnson. But the Grand Rapids library will be getting some extra county funds.
The state of Minnesota sets a baseline amount that municipalities must give to their libraries, called the minimum maintenance of effort.
That minimum hasn’t gone up since 2011, which is the root of a lot of libraries’ budget issues. It’s what gave Beltrami County room to propose cutting a significant chunk of its library spending earlier this week.
Itasca County started giving $50,000 more than its minimum in 2020.
The county’s library levy goes to the Arrowhead Library System to be distributed among all six county libraries.
But next year, that extra $50,000 will go to the Grand Rapids library, rather than being spread out.
The current budget plans aren’t set in stone and won’t be finalized until December. The city still needs to make additional cuts from its preliminary budget, and the library could be part of that.
Library Director Amy Dettmer said she has no idea what the reduced budget might mean.
“As things kind of progress here, we’ll have more information, and we’ll know more,” she said. “But it’s just, yeah, lot of balls up in the air and yeah, hard to say what’s going to happen.”
Library hours will likely be shifting in the new year, based on citizen responses in the ongoing Grand Rapids community survey.
Commissioners Johnson and Terry Snyder, Mayor Tasha Connelly, Councilor Tom Sutherland and members of the city and county staff have met at least twice since the end of July to learn more about library operations and explore future funding, operation and organization ideas.
City Administrator Tom Pagel agrees that relationship building has been a large part of those meetings.
“I know it’s disappointing for some folks that the county just doesn’t quickly say, ‘Yeah, we’re in. Let’s do this!’” Pagel said. “But both entities, Grand Rapids and Itasca County — especially Itasca County, who relies more on state and federal funding — they’re struggling just to make their current budgets work.
“ ... It took a lot for them to get [to the proposed levy]. And then you’ve got us standing at the doorstep going, ‘Hey, we want you to create an equitable funding scenario.’ You always step back; they’re under pressure.”
Johnson said he hopes the meetings continue past the current budget cycle.
“I think we face a two-phase challenge with the current library circumstances. I think we face a short-term challenge to try to address the immediate needs,” he said. “But I also think there’s a greater importance in establishing a long-term sustainable plan, so we don’t face this again in the future.”
Dettmer’s message to concerned community members?
“Keep supporting us.”
