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Council directs city staff to find more funding for Longmont Library

The library requested $50,000 for more print and digital materials and technology access next year, but money available in the 2021 budget and a grant fell short of the full amount. Council members said city staff should look at any available pots of money to come up with the full amount.  
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A patron uses a computer at the Longmont library on July 23, which was its reopening day after being closed in response to the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Macie May)

City council this week agreed to fully fund the Longmont Library’s $50,000 request for more print and digital materials and technology access next year.

Council members said city staff should look at any available pots of money to come up with the full amount.  

“I am always a huge advocate of the library, give them what they need,” Councilmember Joan Peck said.

City Manager Harold Dominguez on Tuesday night told council that 2021 budget constraints only allow for $22,000 in one-time funding for the library to purchase the additional materials for library patrons of all ages. 

The money will pay for more children’s audio and ebooks, additions to the children’s print collection, database subscriptions and adult ebooks, said Karen Roney, director of Community Services. The library recently received $15,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities for internet hotspots that users can check out, Roney said, leaving only $13,000 to be made up for in the $50,000 request. 

The gap could be filled by dipping into a few funds, including from the city’s marijuana tax, said Jim Golden, the city’s director of finance. Sales at the four city-licensed recreational dispensaries are subject to a 3.53% city sales tax, a 3% special retail marijuana sales tax and a statewide 15% retail marijuana sales tax. 

During their study session discussion, council members alluded to the preliminary results of a consultant’s study that showed the library is too small to serve a city as big as Longmont.

Consultant Kimberly Boland and Associates also found the facility needs an infusion of funding to augment the help it gets from the nonprofit Friends of the Longmont Library, which funds nearly all of the library’s programs.

The final report from the consultant will likely be released at the end of the month, Roney said.

Councilman Tim Waters, although agreeing to the one-time shot of funding to fulfill the $50,000 request, said the consultant’s study should be integrated into any citywide planning effort to keep the library properly funded.

Other city agencies and departments also face budget woes, Waters said. “But I think the library is perpetually under sourced,” he said.

The library, at 409, Fourth Ave., is about 51,000 square feet and was built for a population of up to 68,000, Roney has said previously.

The consultant estimated the library should now be in the 80,000- to 85,000-square-foot range and in the 95,000- to 100,000-square-foot range as Longmont is built out in the future, Roney said.

The consultant was hired after discussions began last year over whether the city should form a tax-supported library district.