KOSSUTH COUNTY, Iowa — The Kossuth County Board of Supervisors voted to reinstate $188,245 in funding for 12 libraries in the county on Tuesday.
Kossuth County librarians are calling it a win after spending the last five months attending supervisor meetings and demanding funding be restored.
In a statement to Local 5, Lori Peterson with the Fenton Public Library credited the community for the outcome:
“As far as the Fenton Library is concerned, this decision will allow us to stay open for another year and continue to meet the needs of our small town residents. Without the restoration of the budget we would have had to close within the next few months.”
Lu Verne Public Library Director Amber Harris said she couldn’t contain her excitement when she heard the news.
“I was ecstatic,” Harris said. “That funding is really important, especially for these small rural libraries.”
At its April 22 meeting, the Kossuth County Board of Supervisors announced it would be cutting the funding for fiscal year 2025.
The fiscal year started on July 1 and supervisors didn’t hold a vote on it until now. That left libraries in limbo with no funding for nearly three months.
“Rural libraries need the funding, otherwise we can't stay open,” Harris said. “It's just impossible. Most of us already are one person or two people operations.”
The Lu Verne Public Library and Wesley Public Library had to cut their hours during that time due to a lack of funding. Lu Verne went from being open six days a week to just three while Wesley went from being open four days a week to also only three.
“Had we lost the funding, the Wesley Library would have been open one day a week from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and one morning from 9 a.m. to noon,” Wesley Public Library Director Lany Mitchell said. “That's as much as we could afford to be open.”
With funding now reinstated, both libraries are turning a page ready to serve their communities in an even bigger way.
“This means that we can be open for our full amount of hours,” Mitchell said. “We'll be back open Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. We're looking at extending the hours just a little bit later into the evenings as well to accommodate the people who are getting off work at five.”
In a statement to Local 5, First District Supervisor Carter Nath said he didn’t have to think twice about reinstating the funding:
“It was an easy decision and we didn’t debate much at all today. It’s been a long time coming and we knew that it was what’s right.”