In a move expected to save $850,000, mostly in labor costs, the Seattle Public Library board February 25 approved a two-week shutdown from August 26 through September 1, and December 17 through December 23.
The closure, agreed to by the library-workers union last fall as a way to accommodate the city’s request to reduce the library’s $34.7-million operating budget, was opposed in January by newly inaugurated Mayor Greg Nickels, who wanted City Librarian Deborah Jacobs to find other budget-cutting alternatives. However, according to the February 26 Seattle Times, the mayor’s spokeswoman Marianne Bichsel said Nickels would let the decision stand. “They’ve gone a long way down the road on this,” she said. “We’re not going to revisit it.”
The library board also approved slicing an additional $160,000 from this year’s $3.9-million budget for purchases of books, databases, and other materials to meet Nickels’s request for $337,000 more cuts, part of a new $7.1-million citywide budget reduction plan. “It was a very tough decision,” Jacobs told the Times.
Meanwhile, building costs for the new Central Library, originally budgeted at $159.2 million, have risen to $164.5 million. Donations to the Seattle Library Foundation are expected to make up the difference. The new facility is slated to open late next year.
Posted March 4, 2002.