April 29--While Batavia aldermen Tuesday night voted against giving the Batavia Public Library $100,000 to remodel its outdoor staircase, the decision isn't a done-deal.
The council's Committee of the Whole voted 7-6 against funding the project but awaits two more votes: Ald. Carl Fischer, who was absent Tuesday, and aldermen-elect Michael Russotto, who will be sworn in Monday night.
The full council will make a final decision Monday.
Aldermen initially expressed reservations April 21 about giving $100,000 of TIF dollars to the library, and pushed back a vote to investigate whether the money could come from another source.
The library, which is enhancing its exterior with about $950,000 in projects, asked the council earlier this year for the TIF money.
TIF funds are generated by freezing the amount that taxing bodies receive from a certain area, making improvements that raise property values, and then keeping the additional property tax revenue in a designated TIF fund.
Library officials asked for the city's contribution to improve the library's back entrance -- a stairway at Wilson and Water streets that fans into downtown. Officials plan to widen the top and make it more attractive, which they say will help funnel people to the area.
In February, Library Director George Scheetz said officials envisioned engraving "Batavia Public Library and Reading Garden" on one of the staircase's two walls. The second wall would be engraved with a quotation about reading.
The other repairs include replacing the wood covers of the library's front columns, redoing outdoor hand rails, and replacing swinging doors. The $850,000 required for those improvements is coming from the library's capital fund.
Mayor Jeff Schielke will weigh in if the council's vote goes to a tie. He said Wednesday that he supports funding the improvements, and called the contribution a "win-win" for both the library and taxpayers, who wouldn't have to pay higher taxes to the library to cover the project.
"We have 850 to 1,000 people visiting downtown a day. It's a clear beneficiary having the library in the downtown area," he said. "It's a major asset to be able to spend money to enhance it and not have to put it on the back of taxpayers."
Among those who voted against funding the project Tuesday was Alderman Marty Callahan. He said he voted "no" on behalf of his constituents, who contacted him via email and Facebook with overwhelming opposition to spending the TIF money on the project.
The city predicts that the TIF District 3 fund might also have to borrow money from the city's general fund to pay for upcoming expenses for other downtown projects, he said. These projects include the new Walgreens, which is using TIF incentives to build its replacement store on Wilson.
Callahan also said this wasn't the right time to use valuable city money on the library since the city could lose up to 50 percent of its state funding with the approval of Gov. Bruce Rauner's proposed spending plan.
"Right now it's extra belt-tightening time until we have more information," he said. "Bad decisions are what got us into this state. I don't think we need to be compounding them."
meltagouri@tribune.com
