Page 12
The INDEPENDENT, May 1, 2003
Banks Council starts budget meeetings
Betwoan the Bookends
By Ann Krutsinger, Library Assistant
Banks Public Library
The Friends of the Banks Public Library
held their annual plant and book sale on Fri
day, April 25th and Saturday, April 26th.
Shoppers perused a large and varied as
sembly of used fiction and non-fiction,
videos, magazines and cassettes. New
books donated by Timber Press and by
Barnes and Noble were also available. This
year, the Friends bought some new books
and sold them for 20 percent off the list price - there were many
titles, most of them were gardening books by Sunset Books.
Plants rushed out the doors - shrubs, trees, bamboo, tomatoes
and peppers, herbs, perennials and more. The sale featured an
nuals, perennials, colorful hanging baskets, potted arrangements,
and beautiful garden assessories from Lumberjack Nursery.
There were also tomatoes, herbs, bee boxes and wonderful toma
to and cucumber hanging baskets from Green Spirit Nursery. Flo
ra Lan Nursery provided shrubs, including rhodies, azaleas, and
much more.
lone brought her famous cinnamon rolls for the volunteers and
Ann made some strong coffee. The Community room looked pro
fessionally arranged (thank you, Fran, Pat and Jill!). For the last
two years, the entire sale has been contained inside the Commu
nity room, which is quite a feat! A big Thank you! to all the volun
teers who, year after year, help make the sale a successful
fundraiser. It was two days of hard work but the proceeds will be
used to fund Preschool Story time and the Summer Reading Pro
gram.
Forever, by Pete Hamill, is one of the new books that our
Friends group purchased for the library. Forever is the story of
Cormac O’Connor who leaves Ireland in the year 1740 to avenge
the deaths of his parents and honor his ancestral code. In New
York, O’Connor is enveloped by the chaos that is New York and
comes to the aid of an African Shaman who was brought to the
colonies in chains. In return the Shaman makes O’Corinor invinci
ble—he will live forever, as long as he doesn’t leave Manhattan Is
land.
Banks Public Library: 111 Market Street.
Hours: Tues., Wed., Thurs., 11 a.m. - 7 p.m.;
FrL and Sat. 11 a.m. * 5 p.m.
Preschool Story Time: Wednesdays, 10:15
a.m., when school Is In session.
Phone: (503 ) 324-1382
Internet: www.WILinet.wccls.lib.or.us. to browse library
sources or to reserve materials electronically.
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Deborah Deegan, City of
Banks budget officer, reviewed
the budget format at the first
budget meeting held April 23.
Teri Brandstitr was elected to
chair the budget committee and
Pete Edison will serve as vice
chairman. The budget commit
tee is composed of all mem
bers of the city council, the
mayor and seven community
members.
Mayor Bob Orlowski pre
sented the budget message.
Orlowski thanked all members
of the committee for their time.
He also told the committee that
this year’s budget will be chal
lenging and includes notable
changes in the general, water,
and police funds.
Orlowski told the committee
that costs for workers compen
sation and PERS will both be
increasing. The cost of health
insurance benefits will also in
crease, about 12 percent over
all. Additionally, an increase will
occur in the police department
to cover an employee not cur
rently participating in the plan.
The city pays 80 percent of the
premium for qualified employ
ees.
Though Orlowski had indi
cated that decreased revenue
projections would be discussed
at the budget meeting, in his
message Orlowski said that the
reasons for declines in general
fund revenue will be discussed
April 30th. In his message, Or
lowski said that transfers out of
the general fund will decrease.
The police department will re
ceive about $7,000 less and
the library transfer will be about
$3,400 less than in the current
budget year.
In an effort to decrease the
city’s overall debt, the budget
proposes an additional pay
ment on the outstanding water
loan debt of $54,333. Accord
ing to Orlowski this should im
prove the city’s bonding capac
ity. According to Orlowski’s
budget message most of the
payment on the water loan will
come from a one-time balloon
payment of $60,000 which will
derive from the sale of property
at 140 Market Street.
The library faces some very
difficult decisions in the coming
fiscal year because of the fail
ure of the county library levy.
According to Orlowski, if the
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