By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
The Wood County District Public Library trustees decided to go to stay the course and ask voters to approve a six-year 0.8 mil levy on the same day in March that they decided to close the library in response to COVID-19.
The renewal kept the tax the same.
Tuesday the six-year 0.8 mil levy overwhelmingly passed with a 73 percent approval.
“In this time, we’re in a bad economy and so many people have lost their jobs, that’s amazing, humbling. I’m very honored,” said Library Director Michael Penrod late Tuesday night.
The levy generates $1million a year, about 40 percent of the library’s tax revenues. That money supports, he said, “the robust services” the library has traditionally offered. And the resounding approval signals that taxpayers appreciate what the library provides.
Those services, however, have taken a hit during the pandemic as the library was at first closed, then opened this summer for limited hours, and more recently expanded those still limited hours.
The library’s other major source of tax funding is the state’s Public Library Fund. That is based on a percentage of the state’s tax receipts.
The local levy, Penrod said, provides a steady stream of income. They always know they can expect those checks. “That stability is very important,” he said.
The pandemic has taken a chunk out of other fundraisers. The Friends of the Library have not been able to hold book sales during the pandemic, and the Library Foundation could not present its major auction fundraiser this summer.
Penrod recalled how people would ask how the library was doing, and he’d reply “busy, chaotic and hectic and loving every minute of it.” He added: “It’ll be good to get back to that.”
