BIDDEFORD — With an average of 350 people walking through its doors each day ”“ approximately 111,000 each year ”“ the McArthur Public Library is arguably the busiest place on Main Street.
On any given day, people of all ages, from infants to retirees, visit the library to take advantage of the myriad services it offers.
There’s story time for mothers and their young children, crafting and a hang out area for teens, computers for job hunters, and a quiet reading area for retirees; not to mention special speaking events and, of course, there are still those who go to the library just to borrow books.
But without additional funding from the city, the library, which is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year, may have to reduce programming and services or cut back on hours, said Library Director Jeff Cabral.
Currently, the city contributes $327,000 per year to the McArthur’s operating budget, which is less than 30 percent of the state average of municipal contributions, he said.
The rest of the library’s $882,000 annual operating budget comes from investments and a trust fund from the family of Robert McArthur, who founded the library.
Cabral is asking the city to increase its funding to the library by $83,000, to bring the city’s total contribution to $410,000, which will still be below the state average, he added.
“We’re drastically under-funded” by the city, said Cabral. “Once we’re at a reasonable funding level,” he said, the library won’t have to ask for a sizable increase in the future.
Cabral said he hopes people will attend Monday’s public hearing on the 2013-14 budget to advocate for increased library funding.
“The city and patrons need to take this much more seriously than they are,” he said.
In the past, “we’ve been extremely cost effective,” in looking for ways to cut back and find grants to help fund some costs, said Cabral, and “the (library) board has contravened our investment policy and dipped into our investment.”
These policies, which are standard in the nonprofit world, recommend that organizations “not pull out more than what you earn, about 3.5 percent,” said McArthur Board of Directors Treasurer David Moravick.
The library has been taking out more of the principal of its investments than is advisable, he said. If this continues, said Moravick, the investment fund will dwindle and the city will have to fund a larger percentage in the future.
“The library has been footing the bill for the community for quite a long time,” said Cabral.
With the multitude of activities and services the McArthur offers, “it’s not just a place that checks out books,” he said. “It’s vastly more than that, and has been for years.”
“Libraries in general are often taken for granted,” said Cabral. “It’s my job to make sure that they’re not.”
The public hearing on the Biddeford 2013-14 fiscal year budget will be Monday at 7 p.m. at the Biddeford Middle School performing arts center.
— Staff Writer Dina Mendros can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 324 or dmendros@journaltribune.com.
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