By Justin Flynn
Efforts to save Highton, Geelong West and Barwon Heads libraries ramped up this week after concerned residents grilled council members at a special meeting on Saturday June 3.
The packed out meeting at Geelong West Town Hall was attended by mayor Trent Sullivan and councillors Melissa Cadwell, Eddy Kontelj, Jim Mason, Ron Nelson and deputy mayor Anthony Aitken.
It came after the mayor restricted question time to the allotted 45 minutes and responded with a blanket statement at the May 23 council meeting, leaving many of the specifics of the questions unanswered in relation to the libraries.
Some angry residents were ejected from the chamber by security after voicing their frustration at not being able to pose their questions directly to councillors.
After the council’s draft budget left Geelong Regional Libraries Corporation (GRLC) with a $762,000 funding shortfall, GRLC announced it would need to close the three libraries.
“I certainly appreciate the passion for our region’s libraries,” mayor Sullivan said.
“Our discussions with the GRLC are ongoing and we are getting much closer to agreement about how they can operate all of our region’s libraries with the level of funding available, without the need for service reductions.
“We reiterate that in a very challenging economic environment where we’ve made tough decisions across our operations as part of our proposed budget, we have found an extra $240,000 for libraries in 2023-24. Our council invests more in libraries per resident than almost any other council in Victoria.
“Our costs are rising at double the rate cap, meaning we’ve had to find savings and efficiencies across our entire budget. We are asking our service providers to do the same.
“The GRLC also indicated they expect to receive no increase in state funding to cover the new libraries or CPI increases. All tiers of government are under budget pressure.”
