North Branch Library Discussed at EPL Board Meeting

In the lead up to next month’s vote over whether the Evanston Public Library Board of Trustees will continue to fund the North Branch through the end of 2011, several Evanstonians spoke in support of the neighborhood location at Wednesday night’s board meeting.

Under the , the North Branch will be funded through the end of August. At their May 18 meeting, the library board will vote whether to allocate the near $68,000 necessary to keep the branch running at current service level through the end of the year.

Currently, there exists $46,832 in unallocated neighborhood services funding, which can be designated towards the branch location, though it would still leave a shortfall of near $22,000.

Jim Hughes, board member for both the Evanston Public Library Friends and the Central Street Neighbors Association, said that the surrounding businesses would suffer economically if the North Branch were to close.

“What is at risk?” Hughes asked. “There are no numbers about sales, but with 80,000 visits [annually], or 80,000 reasons to go to Central Street, to stop at the North Branch in 2010, what would be the impact if each of those visitors spent $5, $10, $25 in that visit? You can see the numbers begin to accumulate.”

Hughes said that in 2007, the city commissioned a “Master Plan for Central Street” in response to an economic downturn, which identified the library as one of two “activity generators” in the area. He also said that soft economic data indicates that every $1 invested in libraries returns fourfold to the nearby community.

Hughes proposed the idea of adapting the North Branch as a potential location for conferences, meetings, programs and classes as a way to provide additional funding.

Todd Ruppenthal, owner of the Happy Husky Bakery at 2601 Prairie Ave. and member of the Central Street Business Association, said that the foot traffic generated by the library may provide reason for some residents to shop locally rather than frequent larger chains.

“Business is driven by convenience,” Ruppenthal said. “If Mrs. Jones has two kids, they have a golden retriever and she is someone who uses the branch library, as well as her children … if her parent’s anniversary is next week, she goes a couple of stores down to Stella to get an anniversary gift. She goes in the other direction to Perennials because she needs an anniversary card. She walks a little bit further down the street because the golden retriever needs dog food and stops into my store … If the library were not there, she might go to Target because she can get all of things in one place.”

But Paul Gottschalk, administrative service manager for the Evanston Public Library, said that the additional North Branch funding needed would certainly be available and that it was simply a matter of the board deciding whether or not to keep the location running.

The library recently received a $9,440 delivery service refund from the North Suburban Library System, and any additional money needed to run the North Branch could come from the EPL book sale, which takes in between $60,000 and $70,000 annually.

“The funding does exist,” Gottschalk said, “and I didn’t hear any objections from the board about it so I would expect that they would do that (vote to continue service).”

Also at Wednesday’s meeting, Margaret Lurie was sworn in as a new library board trustee, replacing Dona Gerson, who stepped down in March after serving six years on the board.