Fairfield library director gives annual report to county supervisors

FAIRFIELD - Fairfield Public Library Director Rebecca Johnson gave her annual report to the Jefferson County Supervisors on Monday.

Johnson and the supervisors also talked about increasing the county's contributions toward the library. Johnson said the county has given the library $67,500 per year for the last five years, for which she thanked the supervisors, but she said it's not enough to cover the library's rising costs.

Though the supervisors took no action on the matter on Monday, they stressed the hurdles that stand in the way of giving more money to the library.

Supervisor Daryn Hamilton said the county must stay within its 2% allowable growth as mandated by the Iowa Legislature. Furthermore, the library is not an institution the county must give money to, merely one it 'may” give money to. He told Johnson the library was not being singled out, and that the supervisors would take a hard look at all groups it gives money to, including the Jefferson County Fair Board.

Johnson said she wants the county to sign a contract with the library where the county will agree to give a certain amount of money. After the meeting, she said she's hoping the county will sign a contract to increase its contribution 3% each year for three years.

The Iowa Library Association has encouraged libraries in the state to have contracts with the towns and counties it serves. Johnson said the library already has contracts with neighboring towns in the county such as Libertyville, Lockridge, Packwood, Pleasant Plain and Maharishi Vedic City. The town contracts amounted to $4,900 in revenue last fiscal year.

The supervisors seemed skeptical of signing a contract. Supervisor Lee Dimmitt said it's ironic the state library association is encouraging contracts with local governments at the same time that the state Legislature wants to stop them. He understood Johnson's need for more funding in light of constant inflation, but he said the county was in the same boat.

'Our health insurance premiums are going up, too,” he said.

Dimmitt said there are many unknowns about the 2020-2021 budget. He mentioned the ambulance specifically, and said it's not clear what will happen, if the county will stick with the current provider, if local governments will take on the responsibility, and if so, how much that will cost.

Dimmitt asked why the building maintenance and repair budget line for 2018-19 was so much higher than expected, $59,827 compared to a budget of $35,000. Johnson said it was because the library spent so much money repairing its boiler, which is original to the building, built in 1996. She doesn't expect the library to have those exorbitant repair costs for the next fiscal year.

Johnson said the city has replaced the library's boiler, humidifier, chiller and other elements of its HVAC system.

The supervisors asked Johnson about the efficiency of the library's solar array. The library got a small solar array on its roof in 2013, and one about five times that size in 2018. At the time, library foundation board member Michael Porter estimated the new array would save the city about $300 per month.

At Monday's supervisor meeting, Johnson said the first solar array saved the library 'at least $3,000,” though she wasn't sure on the savings for the newer, larger array.

Apart from the budget, Johnson also spoke about trends at the library. She said circulation remains steady, down only slightly from fiscal year 2018 to fiscal year 2019 when the total number of items checked out fell less than 1% from 180,311 to 179,392.

Not included in its circulation figure is the number of people who use the library's computers. Internet sessions have increased, from 28,414 in fiscal year 2018 to 44,367 in fiscal year 2019. Johnson added that the library's new monthly program, How-To Tuesdays, where residents can learn a multitude of skills in a single evening, has been a great draw for the facility.

The library has listed three goals in its strategic plan: children's literacy, lifelong learning and information fluency. As for the last goal, Johnson said she's spoken with many people who are confused about what media outlets and websites they can trust. Johnson said she plans to bring presenters to the library to help separate fact from fiction.

Also at Monday's meeting, the supervisors spoke with Jefferson County Engineer Scott Cline about road maintenance. Hamilton remarked that a resident called him the night of Friday, Jan. 17 and was upset that his road was not plowed, and that the man had to blade the road himself. Cline said road crews worked hard to plow as many roads as they could Friday, but couldn't do them all that day and had to save some for Saturday.

Dimmitt said he understood the immense workload the drivers must take on, and asked the public to be patient.

'You've heard that saying about ‘walk a mile in my shoes?' Here, it's ‘drive a mile in my maintainer,'” Dimmitt said.