By MaryHelen Swanson

Mention the word library and youíre bound to set off sparks in the Chisago County board room.

The miniature fireworks display last week was caused by the commissionersí move toward adopting the 2006 levy - and mostly over $4,500 in library funding.

At the onset of the budget item, in preparation for adopting the 2006 levy, the commissioners had to decide if they wanted to remove some funds from contingency and restore them to budget line items that had not received adequate funding.

With recommendations from the commissioners, this they did as follows:

Parks - $7,000 (for capital equipment), Extension - $5,000; Historical Society - $5,000; Agriculture Society (fairboard) - $8,000; Chisago County Senior Center (in NB) - $7,500; County Attorney - $5,000 (for CHIPS and expert witness); Youth Service Bureau - $5,000 and $100,000 for culverts and ditches (at the request of Commissioner Mike Robinson).

Robinson noted that there were state aid roads in his district that had been without culverts and ditches for 50 years.

Commissioner Ben Montzka was upset over this. He said the people in his district put more money into the county ìpotî and he didnít want it rammed down their throats to pay for the roads in the north end of the county.

And then they got to the library.

Library funding, as County Administrator John Moosey explained to the Post Review this week, is two-part: the basic services provided by the East Central Regional Library system as Chisagoís part of the overall library operations and, some years ago, Chisago County agreed to buy extra hours for the North Branch, Rush City and Lindstrom libraries.

This year basic service costs went up somewhere between 15 and 19 percent, Moosey said.

Thatís when the county commissioners decided not to buy the additional hours.

For 2006, ECRL requested $511,853 from Chisago County which included extra hours.

But the ECRL board, in preparing its 2006 budget, found a way to get additional hours for all five counties.

They hoped, Moosey said, that Chisago County would provide more hours (over and above this) on its own for the new libraries.
In one motion last week, made by Commissioner Lynn Schultz, $5,000 was taken from contingency to help cover the basic library funding up to $478,435.

In her motion, she suggested that the Wyoming library operate on 35 hours for six months to see what kind of usage it has. At that time the board could evaluate whether to add the additional five hours to bring it up to 40.

The five hours, at a cost of about $4,500, ($1,000/hour) may be removed from the other libraries in Chisago County, however the ECRL board chooses to make changes. The decision on hours is essentially up to the ECRL board of trustees.

Commissioner Rick Olseen said during the discussion that if Chisago didnít pay its requested amount there would be punitive action.
ìWhoís going to punish us?î Robinson said.

On hand for the discussion, ECRL director Bob Boese was asked to speak to that issue.

He said ìpunitiveî was not the word to use. But he said the five counties are in agreement that if any county doesnít provide the amount required (by formula) that amount would have to be made up by cutting back hours.

ìWe have to make up the money,î he went on, adding that it only comes out of the county thatís short on funding.
Boese noted that the last time this happened was in Pine County when Friday service was reduced.

Commissioner Ben Montzka asked if his constituents could opt out of paying the Health and Human Services continuing education program and put that to the library.

Schultz said she did not want to cut library hours, in fact she said she wanted to protect them, but still felt Wyoming should start with 35 hours.

The commissioners went around and around. Olseen couldnít believe all the fuss over $4,500.

But there were others who were concerned over the cumulative annual increases from the ECRL. Commissioner Bob Gustafson said he would not tolerate such huge increases in the future.

Both Gustafson and Schultz said they had constituents who would like to give a lot less to the library budget as well as those who want to support it.

Robertís Rules of Order had been suspended during the budget discussion, they were quickly restored against Montzkaís wishes.

Robinson then moved, and Schultz seconded a motion to approve the core 2006 county budget with the above changes.

The motion passed 4-1 with Montzka opposed.

The end result was the same as the preliminary levy in September - an 8.3 percent tax increase.

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