The Ames City Council met Tuesday night for the first in a series of budget meetings to outline next year’s spending. Department heads put together presentations highlighting last year’s accomplishments and future goals.

The first item on the agenda was regarding the Ames Public Library.

Art Weeks, director of the Ames Public Library, said the library has a current circulation of 1.3 million books per year and that number is growing. There has been a 4.3 percent increase in circulation.

“The demand for books is higher than ever,” Weeks said.

The library plans to increase funding to allow the it to purchase new books.

Ames Police Chief Loras Jaeger then spoke about the importance of police volunteers in the last year and about the department becoming more and more data driven.

“[We’re] striving to provide more information to our citizens,” he said.

The council also discussed the possibility of purchasing a sidewalk sweeping machine to be used primarily for cleaning up campus as well as the downtown area. The estimated cost of the machine is $65,000, with an additional $25,000 in ongoing maintenance costs, said John Joiner, public works director for the city.

The machine currently isn’t on the budget for the year, but a decision will be made during the final budget hearings in early March.

Joiner also presented the idea of working with the Student Affairs Commission to organize community service activities to pick up litter in Campustown and downtown areas.

Joiner said the machine would be much more effective at scraping gum off the pavement and picking up smaller pieces of trash likely to be missed by volunteers.

The regular maintenance of public buildings such as city hall was discussed, as was the possibility of replacing the outer doors.

The remaining budget hearings will take place Wednesday and Thursday at 5:15 p.m., with the final budget hearing at 7 p.m. on March 6 in the council chambers.