“If we spend money it needs to be on something like this.”

Library Board of Trustees Chairman Joe Webb petitioned the Fannin Board of Commissioners (BOC) again for funding for the library during Tuesday’s BOC Budget Hearing. On the library’s behalf, Webb asked for an additional $12,000. Webb said that the Friends of The Library have

“reached the end of their fiscal ability to sustain that effort (of helping the library to keep open extra hours).”

He explained that over the last four months he has held three townhall meetings and helped develop

“the first ever annual plan for the library…we also, in November, just completed the first statistical analysis of the library, actually tracking the attendance…and also tracking the circulation.”

Webb said that through the end of November 104,000 items were checked out of the library.

However, Commission Chair Bill Simonds retorted by reading a letter aloud from North Georgia Community Action Inc (NGCA). The letter explained that the non-profit provides energy assistance for the homebound and elderly and that it recently received a portion of its funding, $917,000. According to the letter, the amount is not enough to cover the amount of applications they currently have on hand. Also, NGCA

“will not be able to open a general public energy assistance program until adequate funding is received,”

Although the letter was from a Pickens County facility, Simonds used the letter as an example of the types of organizations that require funding before the library.

“If we spend money it needs to be on something like this,”

Simonds said.

“We won’t argue humanitarian aid from the library’s standpoint,”

Webb conceded, adding,

“I do think there’s a different situation here today than there was six months ago and that there is slightly more money available.”

Here, Webb referred to the one percent excise tax from hotels, which is approximately, $530,000 annual, according to Webb. He also suggested that two-thirds of a million dollars from the recent refinancing of the Courthouse Building could be available, a deal finalized on December 12th yielding a savings of $675,905. According to County Clerk Rita Kirby, though, the money will be used for day-to-day operations and retaining personnel.

During the hearing, Simonds also mentioned a program called Heat Fannin, a group of non-profit organizations that work together to help provide winter heat for those who can not afford it, a mission similar to that of NGCA. Heat Fannin’s next meeting will be held January 12, 2012 at Family Connection in Blue Ridge.

Simonds told Webb,

“We got folks, here; we got old folks starving to death and freezing death in the winter; to me, if we spend money it needs to be on something like this.”

Despite Webb’s public comments, the Board approved the budget for the upcoming year.