Marshall approves supplemental library funding

Cuts still possible even with one-time city and county funding

MARSHALL -- This week, the Marshall City Council approved an additional $30,000 for the Marshall-Lyon County Library to help with an expected revenue shortfall next year. Together with a resolution passed by Lyon County, that would mean the library would receive a total of $45,000 in additional funding for 2027.

Marshall Mayor Bob Byrnes said even with the additional funding, MLCL is still looking at cost-cutting measures like reducing some hours of operation in Marshall, and reducing some library services.

"There's work going on to make additional accommodations in their 2027 budget," Byrnes said. He said the library would have some savings from its insurance renewal coming in lower than estimated. "In addition to that, the administration is looking at some reductions in some hours, especially on Saturdays," as well as limiting the number of checkouts of some electronic materials, and reducing some part-time employee hours, Byrnes said.

City council member Craig Schafer said he was "extremely disappointed" with the way Lyon County went about setting additional funding amounts for the library.

"This additional $30,000 that the city would be doing is really shifting funding from Lyon County to the city of Marshall," Byrnes said.

As Lyon County faces budget challenges for 2027, county staff and commissioners have been looking at reducing appropriations for organizations like MLCL. The preliminary 2027 county budget that commissioners approved this fall included a $306,000 allotment for the library. That would be about a 25% reduction from the previous year’s county funding for the library. MLCL Director Michele Leininger said even after making cost reductions, the library would be facing a revenue shortfall of about $82,000 in 2027.

Last week, county commissioners approved a resolution that would allocate additional funds for MLCL in a one-third/two-thirds split with the city of Marshall. Under the resolution, the county would contribute $1 in additional funding for every additional $2 Marshall provided, up to a maximum county commitment of $27,333.

Byrnes said the Marshall-Lyon County Library Board looked at the county's resolution on Monday, as well as a city resolution that would allow $30,000 in additional library funding.

"That ($30,000) is in our current budget proposal as a contingency, not allocated to the library," Byrnes said. The $30,000 in contingency funds would be moved to library funding. "And then according to the Lyon County agreement, that would increase their funding by $15,000.”

"This is clearly spelled out in the resolution as one-time funding," said Marshall City Administrator Sharon Hanson.

Byrnes said MLCL would need to finalize its budget in December. In addition to making some reductions in hours and services, he said the library would also be using about $37,000 of its unrestricted reserves to balance its budget.

"In 2027, there's going to be some difficult discussions pertaining to the entire Marshall-Lyon County Library agreement that would include all five libraries in the county," Byrnes said.

"I really understand where the county is, with constraints and concerns over the budget. I can also say that I'm extremely disappointed in the manner that they went with their developing the resolution that led to this," Schafer said. "It was pretty poorly played," with regards to the relationship between the county and the city, he said.

A majority of council members voted in favor of the resolution for $30,000 in supplemental funding for the library. Newly-elected council member Eric DeGroot abstained from the vote.