(Radio Iowa) – Libraries in Kossuth County are facing nearly $200,000 in budget cuts. Kossuth County Library Association president Lany Mitchell said that cut in county funding means each of the county’s 12 libraries will get about $7000 in county support during the next fiscal year. “A $7000 per year funding is literally a death knell for at least four of the libraries here,” Mitchell said. The Kossuth County Board of Supervisors met with area residents for nearly two hours Monday afternoon to hear their concerns. Library officials learned just last week that the county would be reducing their funding. Mitchell is director of the public library in the small community of Wesley.

“I believe (the library director in) Fenton said that even if she worked for free, that $7000 wouldn’t make the library operational for Fenton,” Mitchell said. “Seven grand doesn’t even keep the lights on and the internet paid for. I can’t stress enough how that’s going to be ugly for a lot of libraries.”

In the current fiscal year, Kossuth County provided over $270,000 for libraries in 12 communities. For several facilities, that county funding is the vast majority of the library’s budget. Cutting library hours is not an option for many, as state funding gets cut if a library isn’t open for at least 20 hours a week. The Kossuth County Supervisors made the decision to cut library funding at a budget workshop two months ago, but didn’t inform the county libraries. Supervisor Carter Nath said that decision was a mistake. “I will take as a portion of that responsibility making that decision on February 22 in a budget workshop that you were never notified,” Nath said, “and that was wrong.”

Photo courtesy of Public Library in Wesley, population 383.

Board Chairman Kyle Stecker said budget cuts would have to be made to restore funding for the county’s libraries. “I would personally support restoring library funding to the levels in the current budget in the form of a budget amendment after the fiscal year starts if we as a board can come up with an agreement in reductions to the secondary road budget to the tune of $200,000 plus for Fiscal Year ’25,” he said.

Kossuth County library leaders say that leaves them in limbo, not knowing whether the budget cut will be rescinded and they’ll be able to stay open.