GUILDERLAND — In the cloud of COVID-19, Timothy Wiles, the director for the Guilderland Public Library, says he has found silver linings.

“I think with our construction project, we found a silver lining,” he said as he discussed the proposed $4.3 million library budget for next year.

The $8.8 million project, which expanded and upgraded the library, broke ground in October 2020 and was finished 11 months ahead of schedule and under budget.

The library accomplished this by extending the pandemic closure for longer than some other local libraries. Wiles said he heard complaints from only three patrons that the promise not to close had been broken.

Now, in the proposed budget, maintenance costs are down from $52,000 this year to $40,100 and the cost of custodial supplies has also decreased.

And, while everyone’s utility costs have increased, Wiles said, new insulated walls and more energy-efficient windows have reduced those increases.

 “We have been blessed by not having anything major fail,” he said, crediting the capital project.

Another “silver lining” cited by Wiles is the shift to online use caused by the pandemic.

“I think virtual will be with us to stay,” said Wiles. “Right now, about half of our circulation is of electronic materials.”

While 20 years ago, probably 95 percent or more of library loans were physical materials, Wiles said, now he listens to books in his car while “some people may be sitting in a coffee shop, you know, reading one of our books on their computer or their phone and that just is really cool to me.”

Wiles said of electronic items being circulated, “It was going like wildfire before COVID, but then it increased by like another 50 percent during COVID.”

At the same time, he said, “I’m pleased that we have 95 percent of our former foot traffic.” Recent in-person concerts have nearly filled the Helderberg Room to capacity, he said.

“Story times are full … A lot of the kids’ events are full ….” said Wiles. “Patrons seem to have overcome their fears.”

Some programs are still offered virtually while others are hybrid. Wiles went over a long list of upcoming events and services, including Bats Across the Border put on by Baseball in the Berkshires, a not-for-profit, to go with baseball events in June; a monthly podcast called “How did you find it?”; the Summer Reading Program; the Literary Garden that opened May 1; updated software on the library’s website that allows patrons to book their own meeting rooms online; and an Aug. 28 golf tournament to raise funds for the library.

Wiles cited as an example of the silver lining brought on by the pandemic the formation of the Library Speakers Forum, which Guilderland has joined. A $3,500 subscription to the forum — half of the cost covered by Friends of the Guilderland Library — gives the library a chance to present online 24 to 36 authors.

John Irving will be speaking on Oct. 25. Guilderland patrons will be able to log on and submit questions in advance.

“I don’t know what John Irving charges per appearance, but I guarantee you it’s at least $50,000,” said Wiles, “and we just can’t do that.”

The library, at the same time, may hold an in-person session where people come together to watch the online presentation but then can have a discussion session with a local professor.

Another silver lining was the library made structural changes because of COVID-19 and “upgraded our already excellent air-filtration system,” said Wiles.

 “For the public restrooms,” he went on, “you can now enter and exit without touching a door handle, that sort of thing. So little changes have been made here and there that hopefully will help insulate us against any kind of rebound or the next big health problem that might come along.”

Wiles concluded, “COVID I think taught us a lot.”

Revenues

Typical of public libraries, Guilderland gets most of its revenues through property taxes.

The $4,290,880 proposed spending plan calls for $4,276,000 from taxes, an increase of 2.68 percent, which is under the state-set levy limit.

This means a simple majority vote is needed to pass the budget. The library has never suffered a budget defeat.

Guilderland Central School District residents will vote on the budget on May 16 at one of five area elementary schools. The polls are open from 7 a.m to 9 p.m.

Other library revenues make up just under $15,000 with $8,880 coming from fees for items like passports and lost items (the library did away with late fees); $3,000 in interest; and $3,000 in gifts, grants, and donations.

“As always,” said Wiles, who has directed the Guilderland library for nine years, “the biggest challenge is putting a budget together underneath the tax cap. But so far, we’re in pretty good shape ….

“I would say eventually that tax cap is going to be a challenge for all public institutions, but for now we’ve managed to weather it pretty well and our board is excellent at fiscal oversight. There haven’t been awful trade-offs or sacrifices that we’ve had to make yet.”

Wiles called the $4.3 million spending plan “a business as usual budget.” He went on, “For example, the collection expense stays the same from last year to this year at $395,000. There’s no radical shifts in this budget. And part of that is because we have a pretty stable new facility.”

Expenses

Also typical of public libraries, the lion’s share of Guilderland’s budget — $3,101,735 — is for salaries and benefits.

That is up from $2,996,750 this year.

There is a slight increase in retirement payments, which went from roughly $210,000 this year to about $236,500 next year.

Wiles noted, “That’s beyond our control.”

The library has negotiated new contracts with its union employees. The two units of the Civil Service Employees Association formerly negotiated together but this year they negotiated separately, Wiles said.

The library has 65 employees, 40 of whom work full-time, and will have the same next year. Nine of those are non-unionized, six are in the management unit of the CSEA, and 50 are in the non-management unit.

According to the new five-year contract for non-management workers, a first-year librarian, starting after July 1, will be making $27.49 per hour. The work week is 37.5 hours, which works out to 1,950 hours a year, thus an annual salary of $53,605.50.

Those non-management workers will get a 4-percent raise in 2023-24, a 3-percent raise in 2024-25, a 2.5-percent raise in 2025-26, and a 2.5-percent raise in 2026-27.

The six management employees, in a four-year contract, receive raises over the next three years of 2.75 percent, followed by 3 percent in 2024-25, and 3.25 percent in 2025-26.

 “I do want to thank both the board and the CSEA employees,” said Wiles. “It was a collaborative and collegial negotiation, which was very nice … That hasn’t always been the case in the history of Guilderland Library.”

He also said that raises were needed because salaries were higher at other local libraries, making recruitment and retention difficult.

“We had a couple of librarian positions open that people would inquire about the salary and then they would just decline to apply,” said Wiles, calling it “a little bit of an eye opener.”

He went on, “Outside of the world of librarianship, but certainly within the purview of what we do here, maintenance workers, we simply could not find them at all because we were paying like $13.50 an hour under our previous contract for maintenance workers.

“And, you know, there were fast-food restaurants down the street where you could get two or three dollars more per hour. So it just didn’t make any sense for a lot of people to apply to our maintenance. As a result of the negotiations, we’re now pretty darn competitive in maintenance. The starting pay is $18 an hour.”

He also said, from his perspective as director, the higher across-the-board wages save taxpayers in the long run.

“As the library director, you know, when you spend a lot of time filling positions and then training people and then they leave, that’s expensive for the taxpayers as well, because, A, you’re spending time filling those positions instead of doing work that might more directly affect library users. And B, you invest time in training and so forth. And then the people leave.”

He concluded, “I think it was a successful negotiation for both sides.”

Trustee candidates

Voters will also be electing two trustees — Corie Dugas and William Cooney — to the library’s 11-member board.

The unpaid posts are uncontested; each has a five-year term.

Dugas was elected last year as she and six other residents launched last-minute write-in campaigns after only one candidate had filed a petition and four slots were vacant. Dugas came in third among the write-in winners and so has completed the one-year term of a trustee who left early.

“I’m just really invested in the public library space in my community. I think it’s really important that it is open and accessible to everybody,” Dugas told The Enterprise last spring after being elected.

She works as the executive director of the NELLCO Law Library Consortium, based in Albany, which started serving New England but is now international, so she works with libraries around the world.

Dugas grew up in rural Kansas, in a small town called Concordia. “My parents were both big readers and big supporters of the library when I was a kid,” she said.

The first books that made an impression on her were in the Boxcar Children series — Gertrude Chandler Warner’s 1920s books are about four orphaned children who make a home for themselves in an abandoned boxcar.

“I was very, very close to the train tracks and so it was a fun thing to imagine that was your life, that you were living on the train,” she said.

This year, Dugan told the library of her reason for running, “Guilderland is a diverse and vibrant community, and I appreciate having the opportunity to help shape the future of the library so that it serves the needs of the community. The programs, services, and resources the library provides are top tier, and I hope that my role as Trustee helps these initiatives continue to thrive.”

Cooney is making his first run for the library board.

A Lansingburgh native, he has lived in Guilderland for nine years and has a bachelor’s degree in history from Siena College and a law degree from Georgetown University, according to information about him posted to the library’s website.

He served as a captain in the United States Armored Cavalry in Germany and works as a business manager and attorney at GE Power, both in Schenectady and overseas.

“I grew up reading history and biography books from the Troy Public Library and writing history term papers at the Siena and SUNY Albany libraries,” he wrote in answer to questions posed by the library. “GPL, especially the childrens’ library and activities, has been an important center for my family since we moved here.

“We truly enjoy the wealth of learning available through the GPL, from books, to performances, to lectures and displays of local artists.”

Cooney said of his reason for running, “I want to play a part in making sure that GPL continues its important role in the Guilderland community as a place where citizens can get a wide variety of books, learn new things, exchange ideas, enjoy performances and local arts and get to know each other. I will work to see that GPL budget and spending are well managed within the role that the citizens of Guilderland want their library to play.”