Council to discuss library closure

Among a handful of items slated for Wednesday’s Council meeting is a public hearing to discuss the City assuming facility maintenance responsibility of the Martinez Library from the County.

According to City staffer Michael Chandler, although the library is a City-owned site, the County currently shells out $53,000 a year to pay for the utility bills and custodial and landscaping needs at the library, as well as capital improvement and repair costs in theory.

“Moving the responsibility for these services to the cities is intended to allow the library to redirect its resources currently devoted to funding these areas to library services. Many cities in the County have agreed to assume all or almost all of the maintenance responsibilities,” said Chandler in a Council report last week, clarifying that the County does not currently pay for sewer or any capital improvements, particularly since Martinez voters passed a $30 million bond in 2008 — Measure H — to fund renovations presently in progress.

A line item in the City’s budget for fiscal years 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 is an annual $45,000, payable to the County, enabling the library to stay open 35 hours per week. Now the County is proposing the City hold on to that money, applying it instead towards maintenance and utility costs. Furthermore, suggested the County Librarian, Anne Cain, she would propose to the County Board of Supervisors that she close the Martinez Library entirely during the upcoming renovations. The Board approved her request in mid-January.

“Staff agreed this was a reasonable compromise, given that construction is expected to start in early FY 2010-11 and occur off and on for a period of six months or more, during which the library will likely be closed for significant durations,” Chandler said.

“This is an opportunity for the County to do what it does well, and leave it up to individual communities to maintain the facilities that they own,” said Cain yesterday.

City staff estimate it will cost about $65,000 annually to maintain the library after the Measure H renovations.