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By Tovin Lapan (contact) 
Thursday, Aug. 16, 2012 | 3:11 p.m.
Cuts keep coming in the Henderson Library District — and the end result likely won’t please anyone.
Thursday morning the Henderson Library District Board of Trustees voted unanimously to close all six branches on Mondays, meaning Henderson libraries will be closed Sundays and Mondays beginning this fall.
This is at least the third time in four years the district has reduced library operating hours.
Each library will stay open for an extra hour at the end of the day on Fridays and Saturdays as a result of the change, while closing an extra day per week will allow the library district to better manage its dwindling staff, district officials said.
In November Henderson residents will vote on a tax initiative that the district says is needed to keep the libraries operating at current levels. If the tax initiative fails, both the Malcolm and Galleria branches are expected to close and other reductions could come as well.
Thomas Fay, Henderson Library District executive director, said staffing was down from a peak of 132 employees to 92 today. As a result, the staff is spread thin with librarians being shifted from branch to branch each day to cover for sick and personal leave. Because Malcolm and Galleria are on the chopping block, staff at those branches have begun transferring into openings at the other, more stable, branches.
“As we have backfilled some positions and left the spots at Galleria and Malcolm open because they could be so short-term, that’s left practically no one to run Malcolm and Galleria,” Fay said.
The majority of the district’s roughly $7 million budget comes from property taxes. As property values in Henderson have declined during the past four years, funding for the district has dropped from its prerecession budget of nearly $10 million. While the Henderson Library District shares its boundaries with the city of Henderson, the district is independent and is not part of the city’s budget.
Fay said a rough estimate of the savings from the Monday closures would be $50,000 to $75,000 annually, but more important than the modest financial savings, the move gives the staff the flexibility it needs to provide patrons quality service. The board agreed the proposal struck the best balance between serving the community and managing available resources.
“The two most important things are patron services and staff morale,” said Sean Fellows, the board’s vice chair. “I think adding the hour on Friday and Saturday is good for the patrons, and most importantly we make sure the staff has the time to deal with the daily issues they have as professionals but also as residents of this community.”
Circulation at the six libraries for fiscal year 2012 is nearly the same as the previous year, and e-book circulation is up 300 percent over 2011.
The tax initiative, which is designed to maintain services and is explicitly not to be used to increase staffing, salaries or benefits, would increase taxes for homeowners in Henderson by 2 cents per $100 in assessed property value, a $14 annual hike for property worth $200,000. Without the added funding, Fay said 15 positions would be cut and in addition to Malcolm and Galleria, the Heritage Park branch may close as well.
“Either you believe libraries make communities better or you don’t,” Fay said. “Most rational people realize this is a nonpartisan issue.”
Even if the tax initiative passes, the increased property tax won’t be assessed until July 1, 2013. Then, Fay said, it would take another few months for the increased funding to arrive.
As it stands now, the district is expected to spend $300,000 of its $2 million in reserves in the next year if the initiative passes, and $100,000 if it fails. That difference comes from the overall saving of completely shuttering two branches and laying off staff if the tax is not approved.
Rather than mothballing branches with the hopes of reopening them later, Fay said the district preferred to keep services as consistent and stable as possible.
A political action committee and marketing campaign in support of the tax initiative, called Question 1 on the ballot, have launched in recent months. Tax increases for the library district that made to the ballot in 2001 and 2002 were rejected, but those proposals were meant to fund expansion.
“People will say that this was some election tactic, but win or lose this is what the library hours will look like a year from now,” Fay said. “Even if we win, we won’t know what the revenues will look like for a while.”
Fay added library officials chose Monday because of the potential utility and staff savings from being able to close for a full 48 hours, and because the staff believed that would have the least impact on patrons. If the libraries had closed on Saturdays, Fay said, many adult and children’s programs would have been affected.
The changes will take effect in October for most of the branches, but the Galleria and Malcolm libraries will close on Mondays starting Sept. 1.
Maybe the city of Henderson should consider getting rid of their gas guzzeling police suvs, new police cars after 80,000 miles (I've seen taxis with over 300,00 on them) and use that money to keep the libriaries open.
maybe they should renegotiate the firemens contract where they pay a grunt 150K a year in henderson and keep libraries open instead of paying firemen 150k to watch simson reruns in the firehall. Now all the bad money decisions for the past decade are coming home to roost.
The only people I know who go to libraries are slot machine addicted gamblers who need to check their E Mail for free, since they are too poor to own a computer. Libraries are so 1972, before the internet and e books came into being. Sure, this initiative will pass, but just like dinosaurs, libraries will fade away. Technology cannot be stopped-remember the Dewey Decimal system? Case closed...
anthony...they actually did a study where the resale value of used tahoe's is more cost efficient than the crown vic's. That was bolstered even more when they decided that Crown Vics will no longer be produced...but keeping them past 80k makes perfect sense however 300k is unrealistic. Police need to have dependable vehicles and ask any cabbie most cabs are not.
so tell me doogie.....I guess the historical property research I do at the library makes me a slot machine addicted gambler. Not to burst your bubble, but NOT EVERYTHING is available online....libraries are still valuable sources of historical information.
A library that is closed is a rebuke. People in our history had the wisdom and determination to build the library, and we lack those qualities enough even to keep them open. God help us.
This how pencil-pushing, bureaucratic drones operate. Instead of reducing costs internally, they try their best to blackmail taxpayers into coughing up more money so they can continue on their merry spend thrift ways. But there is hope on the horizon as Doogie points out. One day, and the sooner the better, all of those pencil-pushing, bureaucratic drones will be out on the street pushing apple carts while looking for handouts from strangers passing by. And, yes, Mark, if it's out there, it's on the Internet. You may have to do a little hunting but you can find it all there.
UMMMM....NO....historical city cross directories that list businesses are NOT available online, only the most recent are sold by Donnelly.......check your facts before your rush to make a comment.
I, for one, will be voting to keep libraries open. They helped me get started on the career path I'm on with research at young ages and provided some good reading material years ago, and I want that to continue for this generation.
Not everything is available online, and not every family has internet access. Libraries are a great way to provide knowledge and access to everyone.
You all talk like libraries are just for information. NO! Libraries are about BOOKS! Reading for fun, for entertainment. And there are PLENTY of people who vastly prefer paper books to ebooks. I am a lifelong avid reader and do NOT own an ereader and have no interest in getting one. I buy nearly all the books I read, but still love going to a library.
Doogie said "The only people I know who go to libraries are slot machine addicted gamblers who need to check their E Mail for free, since they are too poor to own a computer."
You need new friends. ;)
Henderson is asking for $7 per homeowner to fund the libraries. A fraction of the price of one new book and you can borrow all the ones they buy.
Comment removed by moderator. Name Calling
If the building is closed sunday and monday the two days is the normal time for the building to be closed. The building could be monitored by cars being parked across the street belonging to the library patrol made up of amigos who watched the traffic in and the traffic out so closing on Mondays isn't any different than being closed sat and sun.
This is very sad, especially with school starting soon. I know lots of kids that after school go to the Henderson library to get their homework done, as they do not have an environment at home that allows them to do it there. This will definintely impact the kids that need the library as a safe zone. Please rethink this change.
Closed two days a week and the sky is falling???? Please, get a hobby.
I do tons of research online and in dead tree repositories. I just have to (gasp) schedule my research.
@JerryFink: Henderson libraries has already cut back their services dramatically since the economic downturn. If you do a little searching you can find an interview with Henderson Library's director Thomas Fay to get the details.
For those who want to play the "Well if 'they' cut this they can pay that" game. Remember those kind of decisions are made by people we elected to represent us, be it congressmen/women, city counselors, etc. We've already elected them and they are making those decisions. Don't like them vote them out. Playing the "Robbing Peter to pay Paul" game is an easy way to duck the real issue.
With Question 1 WE THE PEOPLE are being allowed to DIRECTLY decide what we want our tax dollars to go for. This increase will go directly towards the library district. It won't go for buying new police cruisers, adding firefighters, or other "waste". We must take direct responsibility and decide if we are going to pay less than $20 ANNUALLY to maintain the library district or wait for 'them' to reallocate funds the way we want 'them' to.
Why does Henderson have their own library system and the rest of the county falls under the Clark County Library system? Would it save money to fold Henderson into the Clark County Library system? Then all families in Clark County would get equal library priviledges!
What is wrong with the parents who don't provide an environment for kids to do their homework? That should be their responsibility, not the taxpayers.
A library as a safe zone? Is the library the new babysitter, or a replacement for child care for working parents? Why are the taxpayers supposed to support that?
At a time when Republicans want to kick people off food stamps, medical care, assistance; with unemployment at 12% and another recession looming, and 68.5% of homeowners underwater in the valley, how can libraries expect to ask for an increase in taxes?
The suggestion of providing an increased access to many more books as e-books is a good idea.
Also, for those who are facing lack of Internet access, perhaps we need to rethink the cost of access to essential services websites, such as libraries online. Couldn't something be done by local providers to facilitate that for those in need?
We need to look at the reality of the time and find less expensive ways of providing essential services.
Parents need to start teaching responsibility to kids and arrange their households and expectations so that study opportunities take a priority.
If people don't have computers, there are inexpensive, sometimes free, computers for the poor available worldwide.
It takes an effort to find solutions. Of course, the easy way is to hike taxes on a majority who can't afford even a small increase in our times.
I won't support a tax increase for libraries at this time.