By PAULENE POPARAD

Westchester Public Library Board members continued squirreling away money Thursday for future needs, capital projects and possible facilities expansion.

By unanimous 6-0 vote with member Sharon Robbins absent the board adopted a resolution creating a new rainy day fund and promptly transferred $290,000 from the 2005 operating fund balance into it. That amount is slightly less than the annual 10 percent cap for operating-fund transfers into the fund.

According to WPL Director Phil Baugher, “Once you put dollars into the rainy day fund they’re really in your control, not the (Indiana) Department of Local Government Finance.”

The resolution stipulated the fund can be used for future repair, remodeling or future construction although Baugher said additional uses can be approved by amending the resolution. He also said a rainy day fund is more flexible as far as transferring money back into the operating fund if necessary than the library improvement reserve fund or LIRF.

That account can be used for remodeling, major repairs like parking lots and roofs and other capital expenditures. By another unanimous motion the board transferred $500,000 into LIRF from operating funds. The board had hoped to transfer $1.25 million into LIRF at year’s end in 2005 but $1 million was in a certificate of deposit that doesn’t mature until later this month; Baugher said $750,000 can be put in LIRF later this year.

Of its total $3.7 million funds on hand, WPL has $2.67 million of it currently invested in four CDs. In 2005 WPL earned $18,844 in interest alone on its checking account and the invested Leslie Pratt Trust Fund. Interest from the CDs has yet to be added.

The Library Board praised Baugher for his investment success and, acting as a Board of Finance, members authorized him to make $2.14 million in new investments for 2006. Said Baugher, “Many libraries aren’t in a position to do this.”

The situation is a stark turnaround from late 2001 when WPL lost a large percentage of its property-tax income when Bethlehem Steel went bankrupt. Drastic cutbacks in employees and service h ours followed but since are being restored as Bethlehem was s old, back taxes were resolved and future collections are more c ertain.

In other business, Baugher reported that although WPL total circulation dropped a little more than 1 percent last month, year-to-date circulation was up over 15 percent for 2005. “We’re all excited about that,” he said.

A total of 341,923 materials were circulated last year at Thomas a nd Hageman libraries compared to 290,193 in 2004 and 232,943 in 2003. Expanded WPL statistical reporting now shows new data like 124,404 library web-page visits in 2005, each considered one public service unit or PSU. Hageman in Porter logged 32,890 PSUs last year (such as circulation, computer use, visitation, attendance at programs, reference questions) and 491,617 were logged at Thomas in Chesterton.

Counting additional PSUs at the WPL Library Service Center and the new WPL-operated Westchester Township Museum, the latter showing 1,836 PSUs since its fall opening, in all WPL registered 665,323 PSUs last year.

In 2005 the library system had 11,634 registered resident borrowers and 2,823 non-resident borrowers.

Also Thursday, Baugher reported new printers have been installed in the Serials Department and two new production terminals installed in Technical Services. An upgraded production server has arrived and will be installed later this month.

Baugher provided the board with several reports related to the concept of Library 2.0 automation technology. He asked members to study the literature and to be prepared to discuss its implications for WPL at a future board meeting or at a Future Issues workshop area library directors hope to arrange.

At the conclusion of Thursday’s meeting the board reconvened as a Board of Finance and elected members John Corso and Karen Nash as president and secretary, respectively.

Posted 1/13/2006