County may slash funding for local libraries

By Kevin O’Brien

Libraries in Abbotsford, Colby and Dorchester would see their funding cut by thousands of dollars next year under a Clark County proposal that would significantly reduce the amount of money the county pays for patrons who live in Marathon County.

At an Abbotsford City Council meeting Monday, library director Jenny Jochimsen said the city’s library stands to lose nearly $14,500 in funding next year if a proposal developed by the county’s Finance Committee is adopted by the county board next month. She said the libraries in Colby and Dorchester would also face significant losses.

For the past 20-plus years, Jochimsen said Clark County has been paying libraries to cover at least 70 percent of the cost of items checked out by Marathon County patrons who use Clark County libraries.

“They do not have to,” she said. “That’s kind of a gift they have been giving us.”

Under a new proposal recommended by the county’s Finance Committee, the county would reimburse libraries for 90 percent of the cost of serving Clark County patrons but only 25 percent for Marathon County patrons. This would result in a total cut in funding for the Abby, Colby and Dorchester libraries of about $47,200 from this year to next. That money would be essentially transferred to the libraries in Greenwood, Loyal, Neillsville, Owen, Thorp, and Withee, which would collectively see their county contributions go up by about the same $47,000. (Granton’s would drop by $3,143).

“It benefits the other seven libraries (in

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Clark County),” Jochimsen said. “Because of where we’re located, it does not benefit the three libraries on the Marathon County line.”

Because all of Marathon County’s libraries are part of a consolidated system, taxpayers in that county pay for libraries regardless of whether they live in a municipality where a branch library is located. Since those branch libraries are already funded through the county’s tax levy, Jochimsen said the Abbotsford, Colby and Dorchester libraries cannot bill Marathon County even though they serve many of their residents who live near the county line.

“Their residents are already paying for a library,” she said.

Jochimsen said she spoke at a budget meeting in Clark County last week and plans to attend a Finance Committee meeting on Oct. 16 to advocate for more funding for libraries in this area. She said the actual amount of funding for next year won’t be known until the county board adopts the 2025 budget on Nov. 7.

“This is a big change we weren’t expecting,” she said.

In written remarks prepared before last week’s meeting, Colby Community Library director Vicky Calmes was going to tell the county board that the Finance Committee’s proposal would result in $41,000 less money coming to CCL compared to a previous proposal from the county’s Executive Committee, which recommended 70 percent funding for Marathon County circulations and 78 percent for Clark County.

“In real terms, that is two part-time employee wages or the budget to purchase books or the budget for our programming, including our summer programming, which served 366 children and their families this summer,” Calmes wrote.

The cost for CCL to serve Marathon County patrons is about $129,000 per year, she noted, and the Finance Committee’s proposal would only cover $32,273 of that cost.

Calmes pointed out that a funding cut of this magnitude would not just negatively impact Marathon County patrons.

“The services we provide, the books we offer, the programs we host—they are all used by both Clark and Marathon county residents,” she said. “If we need to cut services because of the Clark County Board of Supervisors’ decision, Clark County residents will directly feel these cuts, too.”

The Marathon County Public Library system could bill Clark County for its residents using Marathon County libraries, but Clark County would be unable to do the same, Calmes pointed out.

“There has been an agreement in place since 1990, in which Marathon County agreed to not bill Clark County and Clark County would not bill Marathon County for cross-county circs (circulated items),” Calmes wrote. “Marathon County did this to allow Clark County to use its funds to support its own libraries.”

Calmes said she was not given an opportunity to read her comments during last Thursday’s meeting, but she plans on attending the Oct. 16 Finance Committee meeting with Jochimsen.

According to statistics prepared by Calmes, the CCL rented out 21,338 items to Marathon County patrons in 2023 (far more than any other library in the county), with Abbotsford Public Library providing 5,395 items and Dorchester Public Library circulating 3,061 items to residents of Marathon County. When Clark County funded at least 70 percent of Marathon County circulations, the cities and village still provided additional funding to fill in the gap.

Dorchester Library director Sue Bedroske said the $15,711 reduction in Clark County funding that would occur if the current proposal goes though would require a 20 percent cut in her overall budget for next year.

If the county funding is not restored to its previous levels, it could be a “death knell” for the Dorchester Library after a few years, she said.

Bedroske said the $15,711 cut – which is a nearly 62 percent reduction from what the county provided this year – would likely necessitate the elimination of a staff position.

That’s particularly difficult for a library as small as Dorchester’s, which only has two part-time employees, including Bedroske, who work 30 hours a week, and her assistant, who only works five hours.

The village provides $44,500 in annual funding, and Bedroske said she is currently spending down some money left over from the years when COVID limited operations, but she’s reluctant to ask the village board to fill the entire gap that would be left by the county.

“I don’t honestly think the village can make that up,” she said.

Bedroske said the funding agreement that has been in place for over 20 years has allowed Dorchester to keep its library open and serve patrons in both Clark and Marathon county. The proposal currently before the county board came as a shock to Bedroske and the other library directors in the area.

“It’s a huge blow, and it is not what the Clark County Library Board submitted to the Finance Committee,” she said.

Bedroske said county board members need to to know the impact of the funding proposal before they adopt it next month.

“You’re going to kill the library,” she said. “Is that the goal? I don’t know.”

WINNERS AND LOSERS - The chart above shows the impacts of a new library funding formula proposed by Clark County’s Finance Committee. The column on the left shows the difference between the Finance Committee’s proposal and one previously put forth by the Executive Committee. The right column shows the possible difference in funding between 2024 and 2025 if the Finance Committee’s proposal is adopted by the county board.