ROCKLAND, Maine — The Rockland Public Library, which is facing possible budget cuts by the City Council, will receive a significant boost from a longtime supporter.
The Rockland Public Library Endowment Association’s Board of Directors held a special meeting on May 19 and voted unanimously to donate $37,000 to the library for the budget year that begins July 1.
The association pointed out in a news release issued late Tuesday that $17,000 of the donation represents an ongoing contribution to materials and programming at the library. Since 2003 when it first started donating to the library, the association has been giving increasing amounts each year for a total of nearly $153,000 to date.
The additional $20,000 is a one-time contribution approved by the board members, who stated in the release that they recognized and understood the difficulty that the Rockland City Council is experiencing in trying to avoid a large property tax increase for Rockland residents this year.
The library association stressed that it will not be able to give such a large amount each year.
The council has not taken any votes on the budget yet but councilors have made it clear that they want to reduce the amount of property taxes going to pay for library operations, which they said are greater than similar and even some larger communities. One option the council had considered involved reducing all staffers, other than the library director, to 25 hours per week.
But last week, City Manager James Chaousis said labor contracts with the clerical union prevent the city from reducing full-time workers to less than 37.5 hours a week.
The library board also said it appreciated that city councilors have stated their intention to try to match funds that the endowment association and the separate Friends of the Rockland Public Library may donate up to $50,000 this year.