By Steve Plunkett
The Bookmobile stops at Briny Breezes every other Monday afternoon. All town residents can get a free Palm Beach County Library card and have access to the county library’s e-resources. They can also get free library cards in Boynton Beach, Delray Beach and other municipalities with a cooperating library.
That would all end if Briny Breezes withdrew from the county system. But if the town did leave, its property owners would save a collective $57,000 a year in county library taxes.
So town officials are exploring the possibility of the town’s leaving the county system and relying mostly on its own volunteer library.
Town Manager Bill Thrasher suggested the breakaway at the Town Council’s monthly meeting June 26.
He had contacted Douglas Crane, director of the county system, about Briny Breezes’ leaving and was told that the town would need to meet five criteria: having an organized collection of library materials, paid staff, an established schedule of time open to patrons, the necessary facilities and being supported in whole or in part by public funds.
Thrasher said the town easily meets four of the requirements, but “it is a volunteer system. That might be a sticky wicket.”
Town Attorney Keith Davis said some preliminary research showed the idea of having a paid staff was not part of the law establishing the county’s library, and a legal challenge to that requirement might be made.
Crane also told Thrasher that 56 town residents hold county library cards, 119 have Boynton Beach privileges, and 36 have Delray Beach cards. He did not specify whether one person might have more than one card.
If the town leaves the system, a resident might still get a county card for $95 a year as a nonresident, Crane said. Boynton Beach extends library access for $30 for a three-year period, Thrasher said.
Mayor Ted Gross said paying county library taxes is similar to town residents’ paying the corporation for the shuffleboard courts.
“That’s because collectively, together, we’re able to end up having more resources,” he said.
Also, he said, the town’s library is “jigsaw puzzles, books and some movies. It’s nothing compared to what we’re talking about, the resources, the Bookmobile.”
The council wound up directing Thrasher and Davis to explore the matter further.
Earlier, at a June 21 special meeting, the council accepted the Resilient Florida Grant Agreement and authorized Gross to sign it, approved paying Baxter and Woodman Consulting Engineers up to $30,664 to file a State Revolving Loan Fund application, and agreed to pay Engenuity Group up to $190,000 for design and permitting of a stormwater drainage system.
Comments