A freeze on its budget has led the Penticton Community Library board to close the facility on Sundays.
Chief librarian Larry Little said city council’s 5-2 decision in February to keep the library’s grant budget at the 2009 amount of $934,719, despite rising operating and capital costs, forced the board to make a decision it did not want to make. “It’s unfortunate,” said Little. “They really struggled with it and there was a lot of debate, looking at a lot of options, but the bottom line is if you don’t have enough money to pay for it, you cannot offer a service.” The library was open Sundays from January to April and October to December. According to Little, the library had trimmed costs by reducing the budgets for books, DVDs, audio CDs, magazines, staff training, office supplies, postage, book binding, salary and equipment maintenance.
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Penticton Public Library
Annual Report 2009
Library History: (excerpts) The Penticton Public Library is a municipal library located in Penticton, British Columbia, Canada, a community of 33,000 people, incorporated in 1909. On Oct. 1, 1946 School District 14 was formed and the library automatically became part of the Okanagan Regional Library, as prescribed by the Library Act. This arrangement lasted until April 2, 1969 when the Penticton Public Library withdrew from the regional system. A public library association operated the Library until December 1969 when a city appointed board was established. Today's board is comprised of a councillor and eight citizens. ------------
Don Quixote Note: (The two tables for the Okanagan Regional Library tax requisition are for comparative value only) The actual final levy for Vernon was somewhat higher. In Vernon's case the 2010 requisition is for $1,428,228 as projected in Vernon's budget documents rather than $1,397,406 as indicated in draft levy.
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