Backers of the Longmont Library are lobbying city officials to give the library more funding in 2022 so the facility can match the needs of a grateful community.
More city money will also mean the facility will not have to rely so heavily on the nonprofit Friends of the Library for help, City Councilmember Polly Christensen said.
Friends of the Library typically contribute about $100,000 to the Longmont facility, which represents 90-100% of the library’s programming budget, Library Director Nancy Kerr said via email.
Longmont’s proposed 2022 budget includes slightly over $4 million for the library, up from $3.8 million in 2021.
Mark Springfield, chair of the Library Board, told the city council, Tuesday night, that the city continues to woefully short change the library, even though a consultant’s report in 2020 found that the library is highly revered by most residents.
“... It is one of the community’s most highly rated institutions,” Springfield told the council.
Christensen said, Tuesday, that talk of creating a special library district would be largely moot if the city already adequately gave financial support to the library.
“We don’t need a special district if we fund them now at an appropriate level,” Christensen told the council. “It’s funded so heavily now by the Friends of the Library … but year after year we neglect to fund (the library).”
She said she would favor using the city council’s $225,753 contingency fund to help the library or adjust the budget “to fund the library at an appropriate level.”
No motions were made on Christensen’s suggestions.
Kerr said the library’s consultant — Annie Seiger of Sieger Consulting — is working to collect data still needed after the first phase of the library’s feasibility study.
“... And from that data (Sieger Consulting) will be looking at where we compare to peer libraries in areas such as physical space, circulation, collections and staffing …” Kerr said.
Sieger will then do financial modeling to look at what level of funding the library needs now and moving forward, Kerr said. This phase of the feasibility study should conclude at the end of the year, she said.
