Residents will not get a chance to go to the polls to decide the fate of the Keremeos library.
At last week’s Regional District Okanagan Similkameen meeting, it was pointed out by Area G alternate Roger Mayer that the bylaw to go to referendum required consent from all three affected area directors.
Area G director Elef Christensen who lobbied against an increase in regional taxes to keep the Keremeos library open five days a week voted against going to referendum at the last meeting in February.
Directors were forced to abandon the bylaw at last Thursday’s meeting.
Mayer, who is sitting in for Christensen while he recuperates from surgery, chose to clarify at the end of the meeting that Area G is not against the Keremeos library.
Further to those comments he spoke with the Review and outlined Christensen’s and his position that they felt that the RDOS should not willingly be taking on provincial responsibilities for unlimited timeframes.
“I think those people who were against it (tax requisition) didn’t want to be paying for it forever, that’s my read on it. They were OK with short term funding to help things out in the interim but not keeping going,” Mayer said.
He also spoke out against the cost of a referendum, which would have cost each area $3,500 for a combined cost of at least $10,500. He noted that there was some concern that residents in Hedley who have their own library one day a week would be paying to keep a library open in Keremeos and that was not fair.
In the same meeting that the referendum was abandoned, Mayer added $7,500 to the Area G budget, so there would be money available if the three areas needed to come together to fund another year of the library’s shortfall. That $7,500 will be collected by all residents in Area G, including Hedley.
It’s unclear if Area B or Keremeos has funding available to come up with their portion of the shortfall if directors choose to fund it through contingency.
Mayor Manfred Bauer said he’s spoken to MLA Linda Larson several times about the province finding some sort of funding to keep the library open five days a week.
“We should hear by the end of March if they’re able to find part funding of full funding. The ultimate goal is a different funding formula for the library,” he said.
RDOS chair Karla Kozakevich, who is also vice-chair for the Okanagan Regional Library board said there is a little time before the ORL needs to make cuts.
“They’re not doing layoffs for a little while. They wanted to see what would happen with a referendum and what happens with the province.”
There is an option to bring forward a revised tax requisition bylaw six months from now to see if it would pass then.
The shortfall in the library budget has been known since 2014 after the ORL underwent a review of how it spends money. During the review it was found that the Keremeos library was being over funded using the funding formula based on population and assessments. Although the ORL tops up some funding to help with the increased traffic during the summer months while agricultural workers are in the area there is still at least a $25,000 shortfall.
During a public meeting held about 18 months ago it was determined that a tax requisition bylaw would be drawn up and additional money collected by ratepayers in Area G, Area B and Keremeos. The tax requisition was drawn up and sent out for public assent but failed by a slim margin at the end of January.