By TOM GERROW
BG Independent News
This week, the Wood County District Public Library’s trustees received both welcome and unwelcome news regarding insurance. As the Board of Trustees prepares to finalize the budget for 2026, there was good news on property insurance. But on employee healthcare coverage, not so much.
Laurie Manning, vice president at insurance company Hylant, met with the trustees to discuss the library’s property and liability insurance coverage for the coming year.
Manning, who has worked with WCDPL for many years, had good news for the trustees: They can expect their property insurance rates to hold steady in the coming year, after seeing annual increases during the post-Covid years.
“The insurance market has been in a hard market, and we’re cycling out,” Manning said. “So it just looks like it’s going to be a great year for the Ohio plan.”
The WCDPL is insured through the Ohio Plan, which is a non-profit that only covers Ohio political subdivisions.
“So this year when you get your renewal, it will look better, even though your renewals always look really good because you don’t have a lot of claims and you are perceived as very low risk and very well run,” Manning said.
Cybersecurity and insurance coverage for the Library Foundation were also discussed. Per a new Ohio requirement, the library must develop a formal cybersecurity plan, which will be audited next July.
While projections for the library’s property insurance costs next year appear favorable, the board of trustees has also been wrestling with health insurance coverage for their employees. Here, the outlook is much less clear.
Paramount, which has been providing health insurance coverage to WCDPL, is making changes to its plan options for the coming year, and the current benefit plan will no longer be available.
“They’re going to offer us other products, so everything is going to be potentially different,” Michael Penrod, library director, said.
The trustees are working with Ben Otley, of insurance brokerage and consulting firm Risk Strategies, to navigate the changing health insurance marketplace. He briefed the finance committee on available healthcare benefit plans on Oct. 21, 2025.
“All of the options are painful,” Penrod said.
The finance committee received four quotes, with premium increases ranging from 33 percent to 125 percent more than the current premiums. Two insurers declined to offer quotes, likely due to the small size of the library’s employee pool. WCDPL has 24 employees eligible for healthcare benefits.
There are other variables in the benefit plans that the finance committee and Board of Trustees will have to balance, such as deductible levels, out-of-pocket maximums and specialty drug coverage.
“We’re going to have to continue to consider options,” Penrod said. “We’re going to be making sausage.”
Penrod said the finance committee will have a proposal to take to the Board of Trustees at their next meeting, on Nov. 17, 2025.
This uncertainty comes at a time when the library’s finances are facing strain due to changes in the state funding formula, through the Ohio Public Library Fund, which was discussed at the finance committee meeting earlier this month. PLF funding for WCDPL in 2025 was estimated at $1,923,000, but in 2026 the estimated funding level is $1,884,618.
At the finance meeting, Penrod noted that with 75% of the fiscal year complete, 70.6% of the budget is spent, with 73.8% spent and encumbered (or reserved for a specific expense). After making an allowance for a transfer from general to capital funds, Penrod noted that revenues are ahead of expenses.
“But that number, that gap, is going to significantly drop because, for the Public Library Fund, the first six months of the year was a percent of general revenue,” he said. “And it was performing well. It was actually performing above estimates.”
“We’re now a flat line item, and each month that gap is going to continue to close because we aren’t enjoying any of the increased unanticipated revenue that the state gets to enjoy each month because that 50-year revenue partnership has ended,” Penrod said.
This change has already led to some cutbacks in planned capital expenditures both this year and next, with the purchase of some replacement library furnishings being reduced. The carpet in the library, which is 22 years old, will be replaced zone by zone to spread out the cost.
“So we’re going to have to get a few things next year, but it’s like 10 chairs and benches instead of 30 or 40,” Penrod said. “We’ll really scale that back.”
