Libraries make funding pitch to County Legislature

4 libraries seek $1 per resident or about $40K; county currently provides $10K

Photo by Tom Rivers: Emily Cebula, center, is director of the Yates Community Free Library in Lyndonville. She is joined by Amanda Anderson, left, the director of the Community Free Library in Holley, and Betty Sue Miller, director of Hoag Library in Albion. They spoke at last week’s Orleans County Legislature meeting.

ALBION – The public library directors in Orleans County are asking the County Legislature to boost the funding for the libraries from the current level of about $10,000 to $1 per person or $40,343. (The county’s population was 40,343 in the 2020 Census.)

The county was giving $29,914 to be shared among the four libraries as recently as 2002, but that dropped to $7,480 in 2003. Since then, the amount was raised to $12,587 in 2007, $13,617 in 2010, and then was cut to $10,087 in 2011. It hasn’t changed since then.

“We love our jobs,” Emily Cebula, director of the Yates Community Library in Lyndonville. “We are trusted, anchor institutions in our communities.”

She was among the presenters during last week’s Legislature meeting. Amanda Anderson, the new director at the Community Free Library in Holley, said libraries offer services to people of all ages. And they also “offer a sense of place.”

Anderson, a military spouse, said her family moved 15 times in 20 years. Libraries are a stable presence in the local communities, she said.

Betty Sue Miller, director of the Hoag Library, said the local libraries run on tight budgets, while continuing to look for ways to boost services to people throughout the community, and without seeking fees for books and other materials.

Tom Bindeman, director of the three-county Nioga Library System, also spoke and said the inter-loan program among the member libraries makes the total collection in Niagara, Orleans and Genesee counties available to all library users, allowing the libraries to offer more without spending to maintain a vast collection on their own.

There are 319,000 residents in the three counties, and Bindeman said the circulation in the Nioga system totals about 1.75 million items a year.

The Orleans County legislators are working to finalize the 2025 budget. Jack Welch, the county chief administrative officer, will file the tentative budget by Nov. 15. Then there will be a public hearing before the Legislature adopts the budget in late November or early December.