Olney library considers plans for windfall
The Olney Community Library and Arts Center board meets this week to discuss plans for spending a windfall from the county’s unclaimed property fund, with OCLAC director Lori Cox wishing to beef up children’s programs and bring more adults into the library.
The unexpected $63,207.04 bump to the library’s budget from Young County Commissioners on Sept. 12 came just days after the OCLAC board had to consider cutting programs and belt-tightening to pay for security updates and higher insurance and utility costs.
Mrs. Cox said the library likely will expand core literacy activities, such as Babygarten, “1,000 Books Before Kindergarten” and Summer Reading, and restart programs that were canceled for budget reasons including Reading Is Fundamental, which gave free books to Olney Elementary School children.
“It’s been at least a year, possibly two years since we’ve done that because the money’s just not there,” she said. “I’m so excited that we’ll be able to give books to students again.”
The adult book club also could benefit from having more copies of the titles on their reading list available rather than sharing a single copy, she said. “I couldn’t do that anymore financially, so I’ve just been buying one book instead of the book and the audio and the ebook,” she said.
Mrs. Cox said she may propose expanding the library’s arts program to include more performers and art exhibits, and perhaps classes. “I would love to have more people come in, even local artists who may want to come in and, and have a little mini concert in here in the evening sometime, and open up the library for that,” she said.
She said the Dancing Stars of Olney fundraiser, which featured a deejay and dancing on Sept. 26 at The Main Room, had attendees asking her to put on similar events. “We can’t do that a lot but if we could afford to bring in an artist that caters to the senior adults more, they could just go listen to the music or if they wanted, to dance,” she said. “I think it would be nice to get that age group back into the library.”
The funds must be used for literacy and arts programs, and it is not clear whether the OCLAC board could use the money to bring the library’s public restrooms up to Americans With Disabilities Act standards, a project that has been stalled for years by the COVID pandemic and spiraling construction costs. “It would be phenomenal if we could do that,” Mrs. Cox said. “It’s such as blessing and such a shock that we actually got this kind of money… just to bring people through the door and realize that we’re still here, we’re still going.”