Texoma Gives: Olney Community Library & Arts Center

The Olney Community Library & Arts Center needs a little help from the community during this year’s Texoma Gives on Sept. 8 to shore up funding for its existing children’s programming and to restore its Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) program, library director Lori Cox said.

The Library’s funding is stretched especially thin this year because of the rising cost of insurance, which has doubled over the past five years and now consumes about half the budget, said OCLAC board member Lyndsey McClelland Miller.

“The only hope we have is getting people to donate to these things because the hard reality is the insurance is eating us alive,” she said.

The library board reluctantly cut back some aspects of the children’s library budget, including visiting entertainers and speakers as well as curtailing the summer reading program during its budget meetings for fiscal year 2023, but is hoping that community members will step up and make up the difference. The library has also cut back on buying new books because of its straitened circumstances, Ms. Cox said.

The facility also faces updates and repairs, including the planned renovation of the restrooms to comply with Americans With Disabilities Act requirements – a job whose proposed cost has nearly doubled since COVID-related shortages sent the costs of building materials skyrocketing, Ms. Cox said “We just had to cut the summer reading budget by $300,” Ms. Cox said. “Our priorities for this year’s Texoma Gives are RIF and summer reading.”

The RIF program supplies two books a year to children who participate. Donors who would like to support the Olney Community Library during the Texoma Gives fundraisers should go online to https://www.texomagives.org/organizations/ olney-community-library and donate on Sept. 8.