Northern New York Newspapers
Watertown Daily Times
The Journal
Daily Courier-Observer
NNY Ads
NNY Business
NNY Living
Malone Telegram
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Serving the community of Ogdensburg, New York
Related Stories

Library proposes $650G budget for 2013

ARTICLE OPTIONS
A A
print this article
e-mail this article

Ogdensburg Public Library has proposed a $650,724 budget for next year, a spending plan that has been called stable but may have to do without some revenue.

Meeting Thursday, the library’s board of trustees unanimously approved the budget. It is about $42,000 more expensive than this year’s $608,214 spending plan.

The city’s contribution is $589,230, up from this year’s $545,712.

Acting City Manager Philip A. Cosmo will review it and make his recommendation to the city council in his proposed budget in the fall.

Library Director Wayne L. Miller said the most notable expense is $52,710 which is the local match for a state grant that the library recently received for window replacement and renovations.

Overall, the proposed budget reflects costs that are either unchanged from or show a slight increase over this year.

“We’re stabilizing expenses,” Mr. Miller said Friday.

The budget also has a $6,700 increase in salaries from $252,730 this year to $259,483 in 2013. That reflects board-approved raises for Mr. Miller and Librarian Stephanie Young.

Mr. Miller’s annual salary will rise from $63,500 to $65,000, retroactive to Jan. 1. Ms. Young’s annual pay will increase from $31,700 to $32,255 effective next Jan. 1.

On the revenue side, the library has penciled in $11,502 from St. Lawrence County’s distribution of state-collected gaming compact money from the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe and the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino. The payments to the state stopped in 2010 as a result of a dispute over an unauthorized gaming facility operating slot machines in Altona.

The library, according to Mr. Miller, has yet to receive its 2012 allocation, which was reduced from $12,780, and may not get it next year, either.

While Mr. Miller conceded that $11,502 is no do-or-die sum in $650,724 budget, it is a relied upon source of revenue with places to be spent such as books and learning materials.

“You’d have to cut,” Mr. Miller said. “It puts us in a precarious position.”

Connect with Us
OGD on Facebook
NNY Deals
Reader Rewards
Reader Rewards