SACO — Officials from the Dyer Library/Saco Museum say without an increase in funding from the city, the organization cannot sustain itself.

The library and museum has asked the city for $436,000 in the upcoming budget year, up from the current city funding of $386,000.

The library and museum are one organization and fall under the same budget. The organization is a private non-profit that relies on funding from the city in addition to fundraising, grants and an endowment. The Library serves as the city’s public library, while the museum showcases local history and art and residents of Saco can visit for free with their library card.

The library’s projected budget for the upcoming year is about $636,500, according to information provided by  Executive Director of Dyer Library/Saco Museum Leslie Rounds.

At a City Council budget workshop Monday night, Rounds said the library not only is a place to check out books, but a place to borrow DVDS, access free Internet, and research local history. For some, it has become a daily destination. Rounds said that since the 2005-06 fiscal year, circulation rates have increased 44 percent and building usage has increased dramatically.

Rounds said that staff pay has been frozen for three years, and the pay rate for the library is at the bottom of the scale when compared to libraries in comparable communities.

She keeps the thermostat at 63 degrees at the library, she said, and elderly volunteers in the history room upstairs huddle around space heaters and wear fingerless gloves in the winter. At the museum, heating is unbalanced, and one part of the building remains cold while the heat is on, she said.

Despite the increased usage, she said the library gets by on less staffing then when she started about five years ago.

“I don’t know any more corners to cut,” said Rounds. “At the rate of funding we currently receive from the city, this operation is not sustainable.”

She said a public library would cost a great deal more for the city than it would to outsource the services, as it does now. She said the library and the museum are a “remarkable bargain.”

“I don’t think you could possibly do it for anywhere near the cost that we ask for,” said Rounds.

The Dyer Library/Saco Museum does have an endowment of about $1.5 million, she said. If more than $54,000 is drawn from the account, it cuts into the principal, said Rounds. On average, officials have had to take $54,000, plus an additional $26,000 from the endowment to balance the annual budget in recent years, said Rounds.

Jessica Skwire Routhier, director of the Saco Museum, referenced a study released by the Maine Arts Commission that was done by a private consultant and showed the economic impact of museums in Maine. The Saco Museum wasn’t among those surveyed. However, she said using numbers from the Ogunquit Museum of American Art, which was similar to the Saco Museum, and adjusting them proportionately, she “guesstimated” that visitors to the Saco Museum spent annually more than $2 million locally on food, lodging, transportation, shopping, and recreation, with an overall sales impact of twice that amount, generating about $210,000 in tax revenues.

“If you support the establishment and growth of a new creative economy here in the cities on the Saco, you must similarly grow your support of the Dyer Library and Saco Museum,” said Routhier.

Councilor Margaret Mills, a council representative to the Dyer Library Board of Trustees, said it would cost more for the city to provide the services the Dyer Library and Saco museum provide.  Rounds is running a very good program on a less than adequate budget, she said.

“This is unsustainable. The library is chewing up the endowment at an alarming rate,” said Mills.

Councilor Arthur Tardif said he realized the organization had needs, but the city was considering layoffs.

“Do you think your request over what you asked for last year is reasonable when you think of what the city is up against next year?” he said.

“I think it’s reasonable because I would like to sustain the Dyer Library/Saco Museum,” said Rounds. She said the organization needs the funds to maintain a balanced budget.

Mayor Roland “Ron” Michaud said that he realizes the library is an asset to the community, but this was the hardest budget year in the 18 years he has been on the council.

“It is hard to come up with $50,000 when you’re looking at potential layoffs. It’s a very difficult situation and no councilor here is sitting here with a sense of pleasure having to do this,” said Michaud. “My heart tugs for the library because I know the services you provide.”

The city council will hold a public budget hearing on May 2 at 7 p.m. at city hall.

— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be contacted at 282-1535, Ext. 325 or egotthelf@journaltribune.com.