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Seattle Budget Restores Bookmobile ServiceThe Seattle City Council has adopted a budget that retains the library’s threatened bookmobile service to senior and day care centers, albeit at a reduced level. Although Seattle Public Library announced plans to eliminate the service in response to a request by Mayor Greg Nickels, who asked the library to reduce its spending for 2005 by $2.1 million, the 2005 budget passed by the council November 22 restores $500,000 for mobile services, as well as adding $500,000 to the library’s books and materials budget, which has been cut by 28% over the last several years.The council also boosted the library’s overall budget for 2005 by 11% to cover new and expanded library buildings that opened this year, as well as others scheduled to open in 2005 and the costs of mandatory cost-of-living and medical-benefit increases. The additional funds will allow the bookmobile service to continue to make all its current stops, but on a reduced schedule. Services to homebound and disabled people, which were never a part of the budget reduction, will be unaffected. “We want to thank the city council for adding money back to the library budget in this time of continued economic decline and for listening to the concerned people of Seattle,” said City Librarian Deborah Jacobs. “We are fortunate to live in a city where the community, council, and mayor care so much about our public libraries and understand how much they are valued.” “We heard more from people about the bookmobile than anything else,” council president Jan Drago said in the November 23 Seattle Post-Intelligencer. “The bookmobile is literally a lifeline for people who cannot get to a library.” Council members joined the bookmobile crew the day the budget was passed to deliver books to a Seattle preschool. “The gleam of joy in the eyes of the kids is emblematic of this budget,” said Councilman Peter Steinbrueck. Posted December 3, 2004. |
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