York County is not a contractual partner of the Williamsburg Regional Library, though that could soon change if the York County Board of Supervisors and the library’s Board of Trustees accept a proposed deal.
Library and county officials are busy hammering out the details of a contract that would make York County a contractual partner of the Williamsburg Regional Library, elevating it to the same status as regional partners James City County and the city of Williamsburg.
“This would basically be an extension of the contract that we’ve had with James City County and Williamsburg since the late 1970s,” said John Moorman, the director of the Williamsburg Regional Library.
Currently under discussion is just how much more service York County residents will receive in the proposed contract. As it stands now, any York County resident can use the Williamsburg Regional Library, and they can check out 20 items at a time compared to the 40 items Williamsburg and James City County residents can check out. They can have five holds to the 15 holds afforded to WJCC residents, and they get one interlibrary loan request instead of the three you can have in WJCC.
Moorman said the amount of money required from York County is not expected to be all that much more than it is now — $506,182 in the current year and $536,553 in the coming year.
The amount of money York County has been required to contribute to the Williamsburg Regional Library has increased roughly six percent each year since 2009. That year, York County contributed $425,000 to the Williamsburg Regional Library, Moorman said.
James City County contributed $4,120,251 to the Williamsburg Regional Library this year, while the city of Williamsburg contributed $819,506, according to budgeting documents.
York County has been contributing funding to the Williamsburg Regional Library since their relationship began, however the terms of the relationship were not codified by a formal agreement until April 2009 when a memorandum of agreement was signed. The final year of that agreement begins July 1.
Moorman is hoping the new contract will be prepared by then. In addition to the greater services, York County would get a member on the library’s Board of Trustees. What wouldn’t change is the library’s name—it will remain the Williamsburg Regional Library.
The new contract is an effort to get the contribution from York County closer to what other localities provide based on the number of people from those localities who use the library, Moorman said.
“We look at how many York County cardholders there are and what they’ve checked out as opposed to James City County and Williamsburg,” Moorman said. “It gives us an idea of how much they’re paying.”
Moorman said the new contract would mirror the current one in that it’s a five-year agreement. However, this contract would continue in perpetuity until one of the entities decides to withdraw.
Kevin Smith, the director of the York County Library System, also likes the proposed contract.
“It’s a situation that’s working,” Smith said. “It’s what our citizens wanted, and I look forward to a continued partnership.”
Smith said the contract primarily serves residents of district one, which is the upper portion of York County. Those residents are cut off from York County’s libraries by Cheatham Annex, the Yorktown Naval Weapons Station and Camp Peary.
Several years ago, York County officials explored a potential library for the upper county, Smith said.
“The citizens of district one made it abundantly clear that they weren’t interested in having a library built there and that they liked using the Williamsburg library,” Smith said. “Our policymakers heard them and have maintained the contractual relationship.”
Building and maintaining a new library for upper county residents would also mean a larger library bill for York County. Smith said the budget, including contributions to the Williamsburg Regional Library, is about $2,596,000. To add a new library to the mix would force York County officials to contribute more money to the library system.
At one point, a plan called for a library to be built in the Marquis at Williamsburg as part of a planned town center at the development, but that plan was eventually scrapped after the developer decided it was unrealistic. In 2008, it was estimated that a library there could cost up to $4 million, not counting books and ongoing operational funds.
