An evening of a back-to-back Community Redevelopment Agency meeting and City Council work session began with library supporters picketing outside.
By MELIA BOWIE
Published August 13, 2003
NEW PORT RICHEY - Some in the crowd that filled City Hall on Tuesday night came to support the local library, one potential target for a budget cut.
Others came to see elected leaders spend $2.2-million to buy Main Street's historic Hacienda Hotel.
"This is a very significant cornerstone of downtown," Council member Ginny Miller said of the Hacienda.
Both the hotel and library issues were part of a back-to-back meeting of the city's Community Redevelopment Agency followed by a City Council work session Tuesday. New Port Richey's five elected council members also double as CRA board members, and as such voted unanimously for the Hacienda purchase.
The agreement enables Gulf Coast Jewish Family Services, which now owns the hotel and treats mentally challenged residents there, to lease the Hacienda back for up to two years at $7,500 a month.
Built in 1927, the 55-room hotel is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In addition to the hotel's purchase, the city's Community Redevelopment Agency is budgeting an additional $2-million for its redevelopment over several years.
City staff is proposing a public/private venture there that would include public meeting rooms and private office space.
A round of picketing outside City Hall by library supporters launched the evening.
Council member Tom Finn has identified the library as an expense that duplicates county services. He wants to give it to Pasco County to help solve a $1.2-million shortfall in the $34.4-million operating budget for 2003-2004.
The suggestion has rallied library patrons, who say the facility is an efficiently run, overused and an undervalued community resource.
"The New Port Richey Library was here before the city," said Joan Rees, president of Friends of the New Port Richey Library. "It's emotional for me. When I was a little girl I would go on my bicycle and fill up my basket with books. . . . My grandmother would teach me to read."
Other budget fixes are no less controversial. Council members have warned city departments to tighten belts, brace for layoffs and/or forgo significant pay raises.
The city's police, fire, public works, library and parks departments offered up to $450,000 in reductions after a July 22 directive from the council.
The library, public works and parks departments suggested reduced staffing with accompanying changes in service. The fire and police departments offered to reduce overtime and stop buying replacement equipment but stopped short of staffing cuts."
"I see some problems in accepting that option," said City Manager Gerald Seeber, noting the two departments represent 56 percent of the general fund budget.
Budgeting tools at the council's disposal include controversial fire and street light fees, a tax hike of up to 9 mills from 6.25 or some combination of the three.
