At the Creighton Library Board’s annual meeting, Flin Flon Public Library administrator Courtney Campbell announced the library has made up the deficit from last year’s operating budget.
“We had a budgeted deficit last year, but I’m happy to report that with lots of fundraising effort, we got out of the deficit.”
The announcement comes after a year of aggressive fundraising to stave off financial issues, including a summer 50/50 raffle, discard book sale and the recent Talk Wordy to Me fundraiser.
“It’s been a busy year, but I think we’ve done rather well,” she said.
“That was about $7,600 raised in about six months. It got us out of that broken heater. We’re very happy about that and it took a lot of support from all the communities. We’re really grateful to everyone who helped us out with that.”
James Hope Howard, director of the Air Ronge-based Pahkisimon Nuye?áh Library System, joined Creighton library board member Val Dixon in presenting Campbell and the public library a total of $18,421.05 toward the institution’s operating budget.
Some other changes are being discussed for the library. A return to Saturday opening hours may be in the cards, while other ideas including expanding storytelling programs were also floated.
“It is hard for people who aren’t right in Flin Flon to get there. Either you’ve got work until five [o’ clock] or you have kids or other stuff,” said Campbell.
“If we can open up again on Saturday, we would be helping the community. That’s what people have been telling us. We know it’s something people want and it’s something that we’re working on.”
Campbell added that she was inspired by the community response to the fundraising efforts.
“Whenever we ask for something, we’re truly happy with the response that we get from the community. We want to make note that we appreciate all of that community support. It does make a big difference. A thousand dollars here and there adds up really quickly to what we need and provides the community with a service they expect and deserve,” she said.
Campbell still forecasts that funding from the Manitoba government is likely to decline. Manitoba funding is distributed on a per-capita basis – a declining population for Flin Flon in the 2016 census will mean less cash for the library.
“We’re expecting to lose about $5,000 from them, which is why we’ve put forward such an effort on fundraising lately,” she said.
Campbell said both Manitoba and Saskatchewan are undergoing public library reviews and exact details will not likely be released until both provincial budgets are released.
“We don’t know how things are going to shake down,” said Campbell.
“I’ve been really involved in the Public Libraries Review for Manitoba. That’s supposed to be done, I’m supposed to have a report – and I don’t. I don’t know what it’s looking like yet, but as soon as I know, I’ll let everybody know.”
Last year’s Saskatchewan provincial budget initially included major cuts in spending to almost all libraries in the province. The planned cuts were shelved after protests and public outcry.
Hope Howard told board members that he had met with the new provincial education minister at the recent Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA) convention in Regina.
“The messaging we got from new Minister Wyant is that, for the coming year, they will keep it at the baseline it was at this year,” he said. “When the eventual public libraries review that was called after the kerfuffle last year was sorted out, that process of review will involve all of the public libraries of Saskatchewan at the public level and the staff level.”
Meanwhile, Campbell said the Flin Flon library is planning another year of fundraising events to cover any unforeseen expenses or change in resources. Another summer 50/50 raffle is in the works, along with another fundraising event for next fall.
“We want to become a little bit more independent so we’re not relying on this constantly fluctuating grant,” she said.
