Commissioners Explain Funds to Library Director

MARCH 7, 2025|

Photo – Library’s lounge in Rawlins – Bigfoot99 file photo

The Carbon County Commissioners, earlier this week, asked the area’s Library System Director to increase services to towns when seeking additional funding.

The story began on February 11 at the Hanna town council meeting when the county’s library system representative, Leigh Nation, told the governing body that upcoming budget cuts might hurt the town’s library. Nation presented a letter from Carbon County Library System Executive Director Maria Wenzel suggesting ways the town of Hanna can help keep the library open, such as providing more money, transferring ownership of the library building from the county to the town, or taking over payments for electricity, phone, and internet services. Bigfoot 99 reported on the story at the time.

Similar requests were made to every community which houses a county-owned library.

At this week’s county commissioners meeting, Commissioner Sue Jones reminded Library System Director Maria Wenzel the county pays for all maintenance costs and utilities for every library. Additionally, many of the towns already pay for water and sewer to the buildings.

Commissioner Jones said the library should agree to increase its hours of operation in exchange for additional support from the towns. The Medicine Bow library, for example, is only open five hours a week.

Commissioner Jones stated the previous Library Director, Jacob Mickelsen, established an agreement where municipalities contributed funds to cover a librarian’s salary, allowing the library to be open for longer. The commissioner added that this arrangement made the towns feel like they were benefiting from their increased financial contribution.

Commissioner Jones said that many municipalities, including Saratoga, already pay for water and sewer bills at the local library. The county pays for some utilities, as well. The commissioner said the library board is only responsible for paying staff.

Library System Director Wenzel said the cost to run each library varies by location, with some towns contributing more services than others. The library director said she isn’t demanding that every town provide the same level of additional support. Instead, Wenzel said she is simply asking each municipality how they can help their local libraries remain in operation.

Commissioner Jones said the library board pays nothing to toward the physical library buildings. Instead of asking towns to take ownership of the building or contribute more money toward utilities, Commissioner Jones said Wenzel should instead offer more services to the communities.

Commissioner Jones said officials from towns like Medicine Bow, whose library is only open a single day a week, may take offense when the library begins asking for more money. Instead, the commissioner instructed the Library Director to consider increasing hours of operation in exchange for increased financial contributions from municipalities.

Director Wenzel said her intention wasn’t to ask towns to contribute a set amount of money towards the operation of the library. Wenzel said her letter requested municipalities to simply consider ways in which they can help their local library stay in business.

Commissioner Jones suggested finding ways to provide municipalities with more from their libraries before threatening to shut the facilities down.

To save money, Carbon County Library System Director Maria Wenzel said she is currently in talks with the Medicine Bow Senior Center to potentially move the town’s library into the building.

However, the process is still in its early stages, and further discussions will be necessary before any decisions are made.