The Bayard Public Library Board and staff shared their concerns about a lack of additional funding with the Bayard City Council at the budget hearing earlier this week.  But in the end, no changes were made and the Library will receive the same amount as it has for the past eight years of $52,150.

When asked by Library representatives why the revenues of the City have almost doubled since 2007, but no additional money was budgeted for the Library, they were told street repairs and maintenance of many departments were “dinging the Council to death”.  Councilman Dean Hopkins explained the City took out a $100,000 bond to fix the streets and that there is still seven years remaining to pay off that amount.  Each year they have budgeted $15,000 for street repair plus the road use tax the City receives.

The Council noted that in the near future they would need to do roof repairs on both the Library and City Hall and will probably use money from the Local Option Sales Tax to accomplish this.

Library Jeannie Stone, who hates hearing the Library called a luxury, asked if the Council couldn’t at least find an additional $200.  All five Council members said no, explaining that money from one fund cannot be used for expenses in another.

Hopkins researched the amount of library funding provided by other Guthrie County Cities and found Bayard easily topped out in support with a $152.93 per capita rate.  Stone took issue with the figure because the usage/services of the library was not considered, explaining Bayard has a higher number of people utilizing their services including the fact that between 500 – 600 adult books are checked out each week with many other services rendered.