The Municipality of Perth South has put out a statement regarding council's decision to back out of an agreement with St. Marys and Stratford to provide library services to Perth South residents.
Mayor Jim Aitcheson says this has been the toughest budget year in his time on council, and council is trying to find ways to save taxpayers money.
"So we were just kind of looking for ways to spend taxpayer's money more wisely, I guess, that would be one way of putting it. We've had service from Stratford, St. Marys, and Kirkton since about 2008, and paid all three libraries, and really, if we belong to one library service, we should be able to get full service right. So we thought perhaps we could reduce the ask, and they didn't agree," Aitcheson stated.
At issue for Perth South is the fact that the Stratford and St. Marys library boards have both stood firm that to get service from one, Perth South must maintain its contract with the other. Dr. Cole Atlin, the Chair of the St. Marys Public Library Board, says there's a good reason for that.
"Stratford and St. Marys have a huge, long-term partnership and relationship partly to do with this amazing network we're in called the Perth County Information Network. The Perth County Information Network allows us to have an economy of scale, to purchase books, to purchase e-services and all kinds of things that small, independent libraries couldn't afford. So we have this agreement with all the Perth County libraries to do this," Dr. Atlin explained.
Dr. Atlin says that's why both Stratford and St. Marys won't allow Perth South to only go with one or the other, as they consider the libraries one entity under their partnership. She also claims that under the current agreement, Perth South pays roughly 50 percent per resident of what a St. Marys resident pays for the library service, and that was what they asked to maintain, but Perth South wanted something different.
Aitcheson says they don't feel it's practical to continue paying the current fees given the number of people that council feels actually use the library services.
"We've kind of looked at it by the number of people in Perth South that actually use the library. I know they keep going back to per capita costs, but we were paying roughly $130,000, I forget the exact ask, for around 400 people using the library service. We thought that that seems a little high. The interesting thing was that Stratford wouldn't provide service if we didn't sign up with them and St. Marys," said Aitcheson.
In part of the official municipal release, Perth South states:
"Members expressed disappointment at the April 16, 2024, meeting of Municipal Council that St. Marys and Stratford were unwilling to work with Perth South to renew their library services contract. Stratford withdrew the renewal proposal it presented to Council in January (2024) and made it conditional on there also being a contract with St. Marys. Perth South requires only one library services contract. Council members voted to explore alternatives to acquire library services for Perth South ratepayers."
Dr. Atlin maintains the Stratford and St. Marys library partnership is critical for them because it allows the libraries to share funds and maintain services they couldn't do on their own.
"So if we somehow decided that that relationship with Perth South was worth more than Stratford and St. Marys' relationship, we would lose a huge number of services along with that decision. That's because everybody is sort of tied in together and we rely on one another," shared Dr. Atlin.
Even if Perth South was allowed to go with one of the libraries for service, Dr. Atlin says that council would be paying the same amount. That's because currently, St. Marys covers 50 percent of Perth South's service level and Stratford 30 percent, and if only one was providing the service, they'd have to absorb the other library's costs to provide Perth South that service level.
That also factors into the rate that is charged per capita, Dr. Atlin points out, because the cost of the library service is based on the cost per capita of all residents in a municipality, not just those who do or don't use the library.
Aitcheson says that Stratford "withdrew the renewal proposal it presented to Council in January," and made it conditional on there also being a contract with St. Marys. He also states that Stratford stated they would be "cutting off" service to Perth South by April 22 if the agreement demands were not met and maintained.
As part of council's attempt to try and still provide library services, Aitcheson said that they are going to try a different approach for now while staff explore other options.
"We want to provide our residents with good library service. End of discussion. So one of the things we talked about was getting a non-resident card, and the township would reimburse for all the non-resident cards purchased to use the library, and one thing about doing it that way, is we have a pretty exact number of how many people are using the library," claimed Aitcheson.
With regards to non-resident cards, Dr. Atlin claims that the "program that Perth South is suggesting doesn't exist in St. Marys."
She adds that they offer visitor library cards that people can pay for. But resident library cards that can be paid for is a service that existed 15 years ago, and Dr. Atlin says they don't have that now, so they would have to figure that out with Perth South and they may not be able to. She says service may not be able to be provided to Perth South residents under that kind of system, as it would be something the library board would have to discuss.
Additionally, with Perth South pulling out of the old setup, the initial release from the library board claims that this will cost the library board upwards of $75,000. Dr. Atlin says that is a huge amount for their budget. She says hopefully the Town of St. Marys can help them absorb that cost burden, but they will have to look at services they may have to cut without that revenue, starting likely with the services provided to Perth South.
With regards to those services, Dr. Atlin says she hopes this doesn't mean that hours are cut or services and programs cut.
Dr. Atlin also says there is a lot of miscommunication and misinformation at work, and she wants to see an opportunity for the library board to come to Perth South Council and make a presentation to detail their stance on things.
"There's a lot of nuance and depth to library services that I think is really missing in this conversation that Perth South's having and we would really love the opportunity to talk to them about it. But they have not reached out to us at all, and they have not listened to their library board representative," Dr. Atlin noted.
In the official release from Perth South on the matter, Aitcheson is quoted as saying “The Council is extremely sorry that Perth South residents will have to manage through this anticipated disruption in service, but we could not have expected that Stratford and St. Marys would work together to prevent Perth South residents from accessing library services."