The time has come for the city to decide whether it wants to keep Iola Public Library’s Flewharty-Powell Annex or yield it to some other entity, library director Roger Carswell told Iola City Council members Monday night.
As is, the house has critical needs for its upkeep, but no funds for repairs. Topping the list is a new roof on the western part of the house. To date, the library — at the expense of buying materials for its book and multi-media collections — has spent $17,541 on repairs to the house and an additional $18,520 in operating expenses, including insurance, utilities and general upkeep.
“We are at the point we need to choose between the library or the house. We can’t afford to operate both. We have no more money to put into the house,” Carswell said.
The house was given to the library in 2009 as part of the will of Nancy Flewharty, longtime library patron. The house is directly in back of the library, on East Street, and is used for library programs and meetings.
“The choice is whether to allow the house to deteriorate or keep it up,” Carswell said, to which City Administrator Carl Slaugh replied, “A residential property does not convert well to a pubic building.”
Council members were tepid in their support of keeping the Annex and asked Slaugh if he could find out whether it could be used for some other purpose.
“I appreciate Mrs. Flew-harty’s donation, but I can’t support moving forward with the added expenses,” Councilman Steve French said.
IN WHAT could be a new revenue stream, or perhaps a trickle for city coffers is tacking on a 1 or 2 percent fee on utility bills paid by credit cards on an automatic withdrawal basis.
The city, as is any enterprise, is charged a small percentage for the convenience of having customers use the system. Last month Iola paid $1,500 in credit card charges. Recouping those charges by increasing a person’s utility bills would seem reasonable, council members said.
City Clerk Roxanne Hutton said she would further investigate the matter.
SEVERAL department heads reported their budgets for the upcoming fiscal year 2015.
Hutton said the city should expect higher insurance premiums for the coming year because “we have had some high claims this year.”
Her goal is to replace computers in the city clerk’s department. Six still use Windows XP, an obsolete operating system. She hopes to be able to replace two a year. The city clerk’s department has eight employees.
Librarian Carswell said several of his employees receive only minimum wage, $7.25 an hour, and he was working to bump their wages up to $7.60 an hour. Also the library will have to receive a separate audit from the city, which will add $2,000 to its budget. A new rental agreement with Southeast Kansas Library System, which uses the western third of the building, will pad the library’s budget by about $3,5000.
