Town Council postpones vote on library project funding

A vote that would increase an average resident’s taxes by $39 a year was postponed Monday.

The Chapel Hill Town Council decided unanimously to delay the vote on a proposed expansion to the town’s public library, against the recommendation of town manager Roger Stancil.

The council will revisit the $16.5 million project after they discuss the issue with the Orange County Board of Commissioners.

The expansion was planned to begin in July and would be finished in the fall of 2011.

The proposed expansion would be financed by bonds, and that debt would be paid back through new taxes, which would equal $26.20 for the owner of a $200,000 home in 2012.

Council members were concerned about the use of the library by non-Chapel Hill residents, who do not pay much of the taxes for its upkeep.

About 40 percent of the library’s patrons live outside Chapel Hill, according to a memo to the board.

“We need to make some real serious decisions about citizens who use our library and don’t pay,” council member Laurin Easthom said.

Orange County currently provides some money toward the operating costs of the library, but the council would like the county commissioners to increase their funding to 20 percent.

“Citizens in Chapel Hill are quite generous, but I think the endless supply of money in our wallets is not there anymore,” said council member Penny Rich.

But without a stronger promise of aid from the Orange County government, council members said they did not feel secure raising taxes on Chapel Hill residents.

“We’re in a place where we need to make a decision about what’s good for Chapel Hill,” council member Donna Bell said. “This might not be the decision about what’s good for Orange County.”

The contents of the library would be moved to a leased space during construction.

Current market conditions are favorable for a bond project, Stancil said.

“Both construction costs and bond interest rates seem to be at historic low position,” he said. “Therefore, we think market conditions are the best to buy construction materials and to take out bonds to pay for them.”

Chapel Hill resident Will Raymond said he didn’t think the town should take on a large project now.

“The memos before you paint a fairly rosy picture of the borrowing in regards to adapting new debt, but they don’t do a very good job in putting that increased debt in context of our already astonishing debt load,” he said.

Martha Brunstein, the president of Friends of Chapel Hill Public Library, said that residents valued the library enough to bear the possible costs.

“People who live in Chapel Hill live here because they choose to,” Brunstein said. “They don’t choose to live here because the taxes are low.”



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