Dallas library could be off the chopping block after public opposition

A Northeast Dallas library recommended to be closed amid city budget cuts will likely stay open after community opposition to the plan.
The Dallas City Council on Wednesday tentatively signaled support for shifting money in the coming budget to stave off shutting down the Skillman Southwestern Library, though several members expressed concern over the cash source and uncertainty over how the branch would be funded moving forward. The approval was nonbinding and won’t be official until the City Council approves a final version of the nearly $5 billion budget on Sept. 18.
Council member Paula Blackmon, who represents the area and proposed moving more than $485,000 from nearly $6 million planned to go toward an incentive fund to improve infrastructure in underserved areas, said an outcry for the library at a recent budget town hall meeting helped drive her to find a way to get the nearly 20-year-old branch off the chopping block.
She vowed the community would work to improve low attendance at library events, which made it a target for closure. She added the support opened her eyes to the “many people that do love this library.”
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“I didn’t realize how excited and how energized the community was until you tell them you’re going to take something away,” Blackmon said. An online petition protesting the library closure idea had more than 3,100 signatures as of Wednesday.
It’s unclear how the branch will be funded beyond the next fiscal year, which runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30.
Interim City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert last month recommended closing the library in her initial budget proposal to prevent impacts on Dallas’ almost 30 other branch locations. The Skillman site, she said, sits within roughly three miles of a trio of other libraries. The city expected to save $485,000 by closing the library, which is one of the city’s smaller branches. It was part of other planned library system cuts expected to save $1.9 million overall in the new budget.
Tolbert said Wednesday city officials would look into ways to find the money to keep the library open if the City Council desires.
Public library system director Jo Giudice told council members her department’s budget wouldn’t be big enough to support all the libraries being open at least six days a week if Skillman Southwestern remaining open is part of the spending plan.
“This choice enabled us to keep every other location from reducing their hours,” she said of the Skillman Southwestern closure plan. The city was proposing eventually selling the shuttered building, redistributing most of the library’s collection to other city branches, and setting up book vending machines for residents in the area.
The money to save the library could come from the city’s infrastructure investment fund, which the council approved last year to boost residential and commercial development in southern Dallas and other underserved areas. The program is funded yearly with money from expired tax increment financing districts.
Developers can get reimbursed for project costs to install infrastructure, such as water and sewer line connections, sidewalks and lighting, or related work, such as demolitions and property remediation.
Tolbert said the fund has roughly $6 million. City officials last year estimated the fund could grow to more than $199 million by 2033.
But several council members worried about taking money from a fund meant to help underserved areas. Council member Carolyn King Arnold noted the city touts using equity and data in its decisions, including in selecting the Skillman Southwestern branch for closure.
“We’re either going to stick to being data-driven, or we’re not,” Arnold said. “We can’t be selective about which data we choose to use. Either data matters or it doesn’t.”
Giudice told council members during an Aug. 19 committee meeting that the Skillman Southwestern branch typically has few visitors who stay for a significant amount of time.
Most users order items online and pick them up, the area doesn’t have a lot of foot traffic and computer usage there ranked near the bottom among libraries around the city, Giudice said during the meeting last month. She also said city data showed the library is in an area that has lower levels of poverty than other area branch locations.
Despite that, the library is highly used, according to city data. An April memo to the mayor and City Council showed the Skillman Southwestern library branch ranked eighth out of the city’s 30 libraries in circulation last fiscal year. The number of items checked out for the first time and renewals at Skillman Southwestern more than doubled the next closest branch, the Vickery Park library, the memo said.
Giudice told council members Wednesday that the library ranks seventh in circulation this year.
Supporters of the library branch told council members the site is a treasured part of the community, more accessible than other branches miles away and vital to the development of children in the area. They suggested holding more events after work hours and on weekends to boost attendance.
“This library is important to us,” area resident Margaret Watson said. “A vending machine can’t replace it.”