Troy Library Starts Planning for Future

An assessment of operations at the and plans for producing a long-term budget are under way and expected to be before City Council in coming weeks, city officials said.

Meetings began Wednesday with assistant City Manager Mark Miller and library Director Cathy Russ to formulate new budget and business plans for the facility,  John Szerlag said.

"The library is really an economic development tool," Szerlag said.

Miller and Russ will extrapolate revenue data and develop a long-term budget, he said. "They are working on that now and it will go to City Council for approval," Szerlag said. "Then we will be looking at best practices."

The plans come on the heels of a new that was passed Tuesday by voters to provide an exclusive funding source to the library for the next five years. The 0.7-millage will provide about $3.1 million in revenue for 2011, while estimates for additional years will be included in the library's long-term budget.

The library was set to close Aug. 5 if the millage wasn't approved.

Russ said she has been taking some immediate steps to "get the library machine back into action," such as ordering materials and working to reinstate the library's participation in the Michigan eLibrary Catalog and Resource Sharing System. The system allows Troy residents to share materials at other participating libraries in the area.

The Troy library removed was from the system in May when the library was originally scheduled to close its doors. Reinstatement has been on hold, pending results of Tuesday's election. Russ said she hopes to have the system reinstated by the end of the month. 

Additional changes, such as hiring staff to fill vacant positions, restarting programs and services that have been put on hold, and the purchase of major equipment and materials will be determined this year's updated budget, as well as the library's long-term budget.

"Everything else flows from there," Russ said about the budget and future plans.