We need to read the budget and make suggestions. (although it would be easier if we had the option to download the entire budget in one document, thus making searching easier)
County Executive Bob Tucker:
“It is important for me to state very clearly that while the library is recommended for a reduction in this budget the County has not proposed and indeed would not support the closure of any branches, including those in Scottsville or Crozet. It is not our desire to recommend reductions to any of our valuable community agencies, but we do so out of necessity only after we have very aggressively reduced our own department expenditures to the point where core services must now be preserved. It is important to note that reductions to community agencies were avoided for the first two years of the recession as local government operations and staffing have absorbed significant decreases. In fact, in FY08/09 when the County was experiencing declines in revenues related to the economic downturn and responded by freezing/ eliminating county staff positions and reducing operating budgets, community agencies received an average increase of 4% in funding. In FY09/10 while local government expanded its frozen/eliminated/offset positions to 55 and reduced non-personnel expenditures significantly, agencies maintained at least level funding while several again saw slight increases. “
The first budget public hearing will be held Wednesday evening at 6:00 pm at Lane Auditorium in the County Office Building on McIntire Road.
What cuts can you find? Dolores found $75,000 in the Libraries’ budget (pdf).
Hmmm …. I think a good business opportunity would be for some enterprising (team of) individual(s) to offer babysitting services in a central location (Cville Coffee? 🙂 ) so that parents can attend the public hearing. Just a thought.
Update 1 March 2010: The Jefferson Madison Library Board of Trustees has voted to close the Scottsville Library.
