Pat Cousins, the Dexter Village representative to the Dexter District Library, gives a biannual report to the Dexter Village Council.

Lisa Allmendinger | AnnArbor.com

The Dexter District Library has become a destination in the village, attracting between 400 and 500 visitors a day.

In the five-month period from October 2010 to February 2011, those visitors accounted for about 58,000 “stops in Dexter’s downtown central business district,” Pat Cousins, the village’s representative to the Library Board, told the Village Council Monday night.

In addition, Cousins said, the library loaned more than 188,000 items to community residents and provided access to more than 11,100 visitors for Internet access and software use.

Groups in the community hosted 120 meetings in its community meeting room space.

The library presented more than 150 programs that were attended by more than 5,200 people, which included music performances, investment seminars, movies, story and craft times and book discussions.

And, while voters in the library district approved a 0.6925 mill tax levy renewal for operations, which will allow the library to maintain its current level of services and hours, there are discussions in Lansing that may result in a 40-percent cut to state aid to public libraries.

“Should this cut be enacted,” Cousins said, “state support to public libraries will have been cut by 72 percent since 2000.”

She said that the current budget proposal will mean a loss of $3,000 to $6,000 in direct aid from the state.

Lisa Allmendinger is a reporter with AnnArbor.com. She can be reached at lisaallmendinger@annarbor.com. For more Dexter stories, visit our Dexter page.