FeedsVan Buren signs library agreement
Officials in Van Buren Township took another step Tuesday night to forming a district library that would better serve the three communities.
The board approved the Belleville Area District Library Agreement and assigned four residents to serve on the interim library board.
“We’ve been working on this a long time,” said Township Treasurer Sharry Budd. “I think we’ve worked out most of the problems.”
Budd and Township Trustee Jeff Jahr were the two township residents appointed to the district library committee, made up of six residents from Van Buren, the City of Belleville and Sumpter Township.
“I don’t think it’s a perfect agreement, but it answers the questions of the three communities,” said Jahr. “I guess in this world you’re never going to have a perfect agreement.”
The three communities have been working toward transforming the Fred Fisher Library into a district library for several years. They had a preliminary agreement in place two years ago, but Van Buren Township was the only community that agreed to it. The committee was dormant for a while until Rick Dawson, mayor pro tem of Belleville, got it going again.
The desire to switch to a district library was originated in part to get more local control. It is currently part of the Wayne County Library Network which means the county has the ultimate say over who is hired and at what salary. The three communities fund the library, though, based on a formula of 1/3 of library users, 1/3 the State Equalized Value (SEV) of the communities and 1/3 of the population.
Sumpter Township is the only community with a dedicated library millage; Belleville and Van Buren contribute through their general funds. Because Van Buren is the largest, it contributes the bulk of the funding.
The other two communities have already signed off on the agreement.
“I didn’t want to bring it to the board until everyone else had signed off on it,” said Budd.
The agreement stipulates that the three communities must approve a millage to fund its ongoing operations prior to the 2012. Until then it’ll be funded by the current formula. The interim library board will be made up of four representatives from Van Buren Township, two from Sumpter Township and one from Belleville.
The Van Buren residents are: Joseph Monte, Christina Brasil, Paul Henning and Elaine Gutierrez. They will serve until November, when a board will be elected at large. Budd said a millage request would most likely be on the ballot then, too.
The board’s first goal will be to develop a comprehensive development and financial plan for the facility—and possibly to plan for an expansion or new facility and how to fund that, too. The agreement says that the city cannot simply evict the library to make way for other development or increase its rent until then.
“We’re all in agreement that the existing facility is inadequate and we need to work together to move it forward,” said Jahr.
Supervisor Paul White said he interviewed 11 township residents before deciding on the four interim board members. He said he was glad to see the agreement approved by all three communities do that the project can move forward.
“It’s probably the best agreement for all three communities,” he said. “I’m as comfortable with the agreement as possible.”
