Library district merger sought

Diana Sahagun

Wednesday, May 17, 2000 | 11:40 a.m.

North Las Vegas officials continue to explore the possibility of joining forces with the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District in an effort to save the city's straining library.

The city's lone library, which costs more then $1 million to run annually, lacks sufficient resources for North Las Vegas' 117,000 residents.

The prospect of North Las Vegas consolidating with the Las Vegas-Clark County District is still an option, said Karen Bramwell Thomas, vice president of public relations for the county district.

The issue will be included in the Las Vegas-Clark County district's strategic plan for this year, which will be discussed and finalized at Thursday's meeting.

Thomas said the strategic plan is a 6- to 8-month process that will include evaluating current services in North Las Vegas and the organizational effectiveness of the library. The district will also review growth projections and financial forecasts for the future.

The members will also examine how consolidating with North Las Vegas will affect the Las Vegas-Clark County district's revenue.

North Las Vegas officials have been working for years to find a solution to the library's woes.

At a special meeting Tuesday, the North Las Vegas Library District received just a sliver of the city's total $165.9 million budget projected for the 2000-2001 fiscal year, which begins July 1.

The council approved the library's $1.2 million budget, of which 62 percent will cover personnel costs and 38 percent will pay for all other operating costs.

Consolidation has become a hot topic since last year as North Las Vegas faces difficulty garnering enough funds to build a second library.

The city already owns land for a new library -- at the corner of Alexander Road and Martin Luther King Boulevard -- and was allocated $350,000 by the 1997 Legislature to design it.

But after the Legislature failed to provide $1.3 million to build the library and residents had already voted down a tax increase in 1995, the city has looked elsewhere for help.

County commissioners shot down a proposal last year by North Las Vegas Mayor Michael Montandon and Clark County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates for the county to give the city $5 million -- $2 million of which was a loan that the city would have to pay back.

Instead of funding the library, the county agreed to help bring a recreation center to the city by purchasing 11 acres at Alexander Road and Allen Lane. The county also pitched in $1 million toward the effort.

And raising taxes to build a new library is not a feasible option because the city is near its tax rate cap.

The city has higher property taxes than in the city of Las Vegas, at $3.38 per $100 of assessed value per year. If the city wanted to levy a bond for the cost of a library, the rate could be no more than $3.64 per $100 property value and it would be up to the voters to approve.

Montandon said discussions with the district are ongoing and that consolidation won't work unless both sides want it to happen.

"We're really at a point where we know our economic feasibility, but we don't have the resources to crunch what the total analysis would be if we were merged. Right now, the ball's in their court," he said of the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District.