Another $260,400 will formally be added to Coquitlam Public Library’s budget for this year.
The additional money, which was officially rubber-stamped by city council this week, is for a wages and benefits catch-up, library collections and extended hours for the mobile Library Link.
The cash is on top of the library’s requested base grant of $7 million that council OK’d last December.
While the Coquitlam Public Library is independent of the city, its board must submit an annual budget for council approval as part of the provincial Library Act, for providing library services to the municipality.
Mayor Richard Stewart and council offered no comment to the report at the March 31 meeting.
According to the 2025 financial plan, the library, which has the City Centre and Poirier branches and is now preparing for a third location on Burke Mountain, also receives about $288,000 a year from the provincial government and takes in about $66,000 a year from fees and printing.
Its biggest expenses include:
- salaries
- $4.3 million
- benefits
- $860,000
- library materials capital reserve contribution
- $730,000
- magazines and digital collections
- $439,000
- computer systems contracts
- $214,000
Meanwhile, the library board has also budgeted $15,000 for a race and social equity program this year.
Meeting on the fourth Wednesday of each month, the current library board is made up of:
- Jacqueline Gorton
- chair
- Raymond Lee
- vice chair
- Steve Leung
- treasurer
- Monica Heir
- trustee
- Cindy Mark
- trustee
- Fiona McQuarrie
- trustee
- Neal Nicholson
- trustee
- Kimberly Sivak
- trustee
- Anthea Goffe
- executive director and board secretary
- Coun. Trish Mandewo
- council liaison
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