Gallery extension costs rising

Press, 27 April 1983, Page 6

Gallery extension costs rising

The total cost of the Robert McDougall Art Gallery office and staff premises extension might be $181,060. This would include $14,500 for furniture hnd equipment, an Item which was not 1 included in earlier estimates, the Christchurch City Council’s, cultural committee was told yesterday. When the building extension was first approved, it was expected to cost about i $96,000. But tenders ; received for the project i were far above that, and a < review of project costs last October indicated a final I cost of about $153,000. 1 Now that’ the work is i alntet fihished, the costitii fumitire and equip- TJ,!

ment is expected to be about $167,000. The Lotteries Board Art Galleries and Museums Fund has promised $20,000 toward the project. The gallery’s director, Mr John Coley, said the fund would be asked for additional subsidy based on increased project costs. Councillors were told that the gallery was seeking a 25.78 per cent increase in revenue from rates, with about 21 per cent of that for the gallery extension capital cost. The recommended gallery budget for 1983-84 is $672,371. That budget, along with all others being considered by the council, will be 'Studied by a special sub-

committee to determine where cuts might be made. Councillors recommended a library budget of $4,146,696, representing a spending increase of 18.86 per cent. The main capital works item would be $70,000 toward provision of a Linwood branch library in four years. The library’s total $280,000 cost would require $70,000 in each of those year’s budgets. Councillors were told that the first $70,000 could be used to purchase a library site in Linwood. Another $40,000 would be used to employ two more central city library staff members. Mr Jj E. D. Stringleman, the CitaLibrarian, said that

there were signs of staff stress with the amount of service work they were being required to do by library users. * There were unavoidable delays at information desks throughout the day, and staff had coped at the expense of behind-the-scenes duties, such as book selection and stock revision.

The new library had 109,333 members at the end of March, 22 per cent more than at the end of 1981, when the old library was closed.

City members represented 54 per cent of the city’s population, and that far exceeded the 40 pe{ cent considered to be a reasonable standard for liberies.

Non-city members made up 22,241 of the total. During the 1982-83 financial year, the library issued 990,649 publications, a 23 per cent increase, and received 100,342 reference inquiries, a 36 per cent increase.

This financial year, a book-buying vote increase of about 12 per cent is being sought. Last year’s 18 per cent spending rise on new books allowed the purchase of only 1242 more books than during the previous year. Mr Stringleman said that it was essential to keep acquisitions at least at their present level because of the heavy use being made of the stock