Colfax Public Library Board approves $138,344 budget for 2017

By LeAnn R. Ralph

COLFAX —  The Colfax Public Library Board has approved a budget of $138,344 for 2017, representing an increase of $115 over the 2016 budget.

While the overall increase is very small, some budget items have been adjusted one way or the other, said Lisa Bragg-Hurlburt, library director, at the November 17 meeting of the Colfax Public Library Board.

According to the library’s budget, the personnel expense is $82,166 for 2017, representing a $2,166 increase over 2016.

Part of the increase is due to increased hours for Jolene Albricht, the library’s children’s librarian, Bragg-Hurlburt said.

The personnel budget also increased by nearly $1,400 for an on-call library substitute.

Other increases are due to increases in the cost of benefits.

The director’s salary is listed at $38,000. The children’s librarian’s salary is listed at $15,737. The library clerk’s salary is listed as $11,196. The Saturday library clerk is $2,691. The on-call library substitute is listed at $5,374.

The operations portions of the budget for 2017 is listed at $56,178, representing a decrease of $1,310.

The books part of the budget decreased by $1,500 for a total of $12,000 for 2017.

“That’s still $1,000 per month for books,” Bragg-Hurlburt said.

The budget for utilities (electricity, heat and telephone) decreased by $1,500.

The decreases in the amounts for utilities reflects the actual cost of utilities for 2016, Bragg-Hurlburt said.

The subsidy from Dunn County also is decreasing in 2017, she noted.

The county subsidy for the Colfax Public Library is listed at $74,070, representing a decrease of $3,619 over the subsidy for 2016.

Dunn County’s library subsidy for Colfax was $69,030 in 2015.

The tax levy for the Village of Colfax is listed as $54,791, representing an increase of $713 over 2016.

Dunn County provides more than half of the funding for the Colfax Public Library to account for county residents who live outside Colfax who use the library.

The 2017 revenue budget also includes $7,027 for Act 150, which is the state law that allows libraries to invoice other counties for library users who do not live in Dunn County.

For the Colfax library, the Act 150 amount accounts for people living in Chippewa County, such as in the Town of Howard, who use the Colfax library, Bragg-Hurlburt said.

The 2016 budget also has leftover money, she noted.

The money remaining in the 2016 budget belongs to the library and not to the village.

Bragg-Hurlburt said she had checked with Lynn Niggemann, village administrator-clerk-treasurer, and the remaining funds can be set aside for the library’s future remodeling project.

Along with other funds that have been set aside for the library, the total amount to date is about $70,000, Bragg-Hurlburt said.

The library’s 2017 revenue budget also includes $2,456 for library fines, book sales and photocopier use.