Ketchikan library faces 40% budget cut if borough-city contract expires

The Ketchikan Public Library faces losing roughly 40 percent of its budget if the Ketchikan Gateway Borough and the city fail to renegotiate or replace their library services contract before December 31.

Library Director Pat Bowling described the potential impact at the Ketchikan Public Library Advisory Board's quarterly meeting on July 8. "The library's budget would potentially be reduced by 40%, the approximate amount of the borough's contribution to library services," Bowling said. The borough assembly voted earlier this year to terminate the agreement, citing concerns over recent increases in the borough's contribution to library services.

Renegotiation in Dispute

Talks have been contentious. Borough Assembly member Kathy Bolling said borough staff entered negotiations with a single instruction: offer only a consumer price index increase tied to Anchorage figures. The city rejected it. "I don't want the city to be painted as if they were being unreasonable," Bolling said, "because that wasn't in good faith."

Bolling named what she sees as the deeper conflict. "What is tightly woven into this challenge, this argument between city and borough and people not wanting to pay a non-area-wide fee, is they want control of collection development, which is so offensively absurd to me," she said. Even if the borough assumes area-wide library powers, she warned, the structural problem does not go away. "Whether it stays as a city department or moves to the borough, you have a borough assembly who is not interested in spending very much money on the library," Bolling said. "So it's going to be a battle no matter what."

Petition Drive Targets July Deadline

A citizens' petition drive is working to force the question to voters before the December deadline arrives. The petition had 289 signatures as of Sunday. Organizers said 369 valid signatures would be the minimum if every signature counted, and their practical goal is at least 400. Signatures must be submitted by July 20, the same day the borough assembly holds a public hearing and work session on the library. Organizers noted that even if enough signatures are gathered by then, not all may be certified in time, though the numbers would still carry weight with the assembly.