EMO — A valuable part of the community “is in danger of closing” due to cost increases outpacing revenues, Emo Public Library’s CEO and librarian says.
The library needs monetary donations to meet this year’s costs, Nick Donaldson says in a recent open letter to Emo residents on Facebook.
Otherwise, he writes, “we will be forced to close our doors for the remainder of 2023.”
“Rising costs of materials, labour, insurance and utilities have put us in a particularly bad spot this year when most years the library is just barely scraping by,” Donaldson said Thursday in an email.
“A pay equity investigation also found that the library had not been keeping up with its pay equity plan for a number of years, so now those increases have hit us all at once,” he added.
He estimated the library needs $20-25,000 to stay out of the red for 2023.
The library will ask for levy increases for next year “from the Township of Emo, as well as the Townships of La Vallee and Chapple which we are also contracted with for services,” he said.
Besides patrons who borrow from it, the library’s closure would be negative for those who use it for computer and internet access, photocopying, faxing, laminating and reference services, Donaldson said.
“We are also a public place where anyone — regardless of age, race, gender or ability — can come and spend some time reading, studying or just relaxing,” he said.
The library can take donations by cash or cheque, he said, adding that anyone interested in donating may contact the library with any questions about how.
The library is “in dire straits,” Mayor Harold McQuaker admitted Thursday.
So, does the township have a plan to extricate the library from those dire straits?
“I hate to say without council approval that there’s a plan,” McQuaker said. “It’s something that we would have to discuss in council.”
McQuaker said he would like to see the library get more funding in the next budget, “but we’ve been hit hard with other issues, terrible hard.”
Pay equity costs have hit the township’s operating budget “awful hard,” he said. “And a lot of sloppiness from previous councils put us in a bad position.”
Emo’s next annual budget will be made in the first two months of 2024, he said.
