(Guthrie Center, IA) — The Guthrie County Board of Supervisors are considering a request by the County Library Association for an increase in funds for the coming year. In the last budget, the county spent $139,256 which was a 5 percent increase from the previous year. At Tuesday’s supervisors meeting, the library requested an 8 percent increase for 2025. Leah Venter of the Library Association says one of the reasons is that libraries are going from paper to digital and there is a high cost with that
Venter says that the increase last year did not even cover the rise in utilities — the electrical bill went up 10 percent last year so they could not add many needed programs. Supervisor Brian Johnson says the library provides an essential service
Supervisor Maggie Armstrong brought up whether there were alternative funding possibilities and Venter says federal grants are very difficult to obtain and are only for individual programs. The supervisors did not take immediate action on the request and they and the library association were going to explore all the funding alternatives.
