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After more than a decade of housing the Utah County Bookmobile, citizens of Mapleton will soon have the option of building a library of their own.
Mapleton Mayor Laurel Brady said the city has included funds in the tentative 2009 budget for citizens to consider the cost of a city library in a fiscally conservative year. Although the large Bookmobile collection is housed in the city center, the idea of a city-controlled library has been on the minds of citizens for some time.
"We have had, for a number of years, a committee of residents studying the issues surrounding having our own library," said Brady.
The new city center where the Bookmobile is housed was built with a city library in mind, as were other buildings in the city. Even when a city library was not feasible, the city made preparations for its future use.
Brady said city officials have felt for a couple of years that they are ready to have their own library, and this year seemed to be a good time. At more than $160,000, however, she said the city council wants to be sure it is the right way to spend the money.
"Now, with the economy doing what it's doing, it's giving us pause," she said.
The money was put into the tentative budget to show residents the actual impact the library will have and to give them a chance to voice their opinion. The move will mean a tax increase for the city, though a tax increase in some form will happen either way. Brady said a public meeting July 9 and a Truth in Taxation hearing in August will give residents a chance to give some much needed input.
"If they want to pay for the library, basically, then we'll go ahead with it," she said.
The taxes for the library will only be for the library, and the move will not replace any other services. Brady said the city wants its own library to have direct control over it and what books are inside. A city library would serve the residents better, she said, and prevent them from going to other cities, like Springville, for services.
"[The Bookmobile] is a good popular reading type of library," she said. "It's not a research library. It's not an all-inclusive library that our own would be."
Mapleton City Administrator Bob Bradshaw said many residents currently hold a Springville Library card in case they need to do research. The cost for a non-resident card in Springville is $88 per year, and the tax increase would equal about $50 per year.
Bradshaw said the library board has convinced the city council that this is the best time to create a city library, though officials are hesitant to add taxes for it.
The library would not generate any revenue for the city and would be paid for by property taxes. Bradshaw said the city also has thousands of donated books ready to use that are being stored in the city center basement.
"We're storing those in the basement, rather than seeing them turned into pulp, or whatever they do," he said.
Donna Jones Harris, state librarian, said the Bookmobile collection in Mapleton is the county repository for the books that are loaded on and off the Bookmobile. Even if Mapleton obtains its own collection for a library, Morris said the collections are often still housed in the same location, and the Bookmobile would not necessarily move. Morris said collections all over the state can be solely Bookmobile books, or combined as they are in Delta. The service is contracted by the County Commission for cities and towns that do not have their own collections for residents to use.
Brady said the Bookmobile is a good service for city residents, but the city hopes to be able to provide more services in the future than the Bookmobile can provide.
"We have been very grateful to have the Bookmobile library for all these years," she said. "It's been a huge benefit." |
