Nonresident Use and Library Facilities Maintenance

Link to May 11 myracinecounty.com article, "Library lacking funding. Only a third of library users are from the village".

Excerpt: Success has proven to be a double-edge sword for the Waterford Public Library.

While the library is used heavily not only by those in the village, but also by the surrounding communities, it's the fact that only the Village of Waterford has to pay for its upkeep and maintenance.

That fact has left village officials looking at how best to budget for the upkeep of the facility and some form of cost-sharing in the favor that would preclude the need from the village bearing the full financial burden of the facility.

The issue came up during a recent village board meeting at which Library Director Pam Belden presented the annual report detailing usage of the facility for 2009.

While 30 percent of the materials circulated out of the library during 2009 went to village residents, a nearly equal 29 percent were checked out by Town of Waterford residents. Also among the communities using the facility were the Town of Norway (17 percent of total circulation), Village of Rochester (7 percent of total circulation) and the Town of Dover (3 percent of total circulation). Other communities throughout the county accounted for an additional 9 percent of all material checked out of the library.