The Fannin County Public Library Board of Trustees remembered member Rita VanOrsdal, selected a new chairman and discussed a lack of funding from the city of McCaysville during their quarterly meeting Thursday, July 23.
“Rita passed away last night,” John Turner said as he recognized the board’s loss of VanOrsdal. “She was a dedicated person to our library and to our community. She was a person with a sense of humor. I laughed every time I was in contact with her at our meetings and so forth.
“She was always someone who was eager to advance the cause of our library, support our library and she will be missed very much by this board and by I think the entire Fannin County community.”
In other action, Mountain Regional Library System Business Manager Vicki Adkinson explained that COVID-19 related government budget cuts did not affect the public library, or any library within the system, in a negative way as projected.
Instead, the libraries will continue to receive the funding they had originally anticipated before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Regional Library Director Heath Lee told the board that the city of McCaysville has yet to provide the library with their funding contribution of $2,500 for the year.
“We discovered that the City of McCaysville had not sent in their funding for over the library’s fiscal year,” Lee said. “The last time McCaysville sent in a check was May of last year.
“As per the bylaws, if an agency or entity is sending in a funding check then they will acquire X number of seats on the board. So, with that in mind we reached out to McCaysville, and the response we got back from the mayor was that it may be difficult for them to resume funding.”
Lee explained that it was up to the board to determine if McCaysville should still be viewed as a funding agency and if the number of the city’s representatives on the board should change.
“That’s certainly something we do not want to happen at all, and unless it’s forced upon us by the bylaws or some other mechanics of how we’re governed, we certainly want to avoid this,” Turner said. “Given their situation, it was in the paper today, it’s obvious that they’re having funding issues, so I don’t think we should expect this. On the other hand, $2,500. I think we can live without that for a little while as far as operations and so forth.”
Lee added, “I’m not sure it’s a question of finances, but it may be a question of precedent.”
The board took no action regarding the city’s funding agency status during the meeting, but will revisit the topic at their next meeting.
The board also selected Turner to serve as chairman, added Kathleen Tickner and Mark Tine to their list of representatives on the Mountain Regional Library Board and selected Ron Bolin, Turner, and former members Gordon Riddoch and Nick Wimberley to serve on a building subcommittee.
According to Lee, there are also three open seats available on the board, one for each city to fill.
However, the city mayors have had a difficult time finding citizens to serve.
Turner suggested that current members of the board recommend potential members to pass a long to the cities for selection.
Those interested in serving on the board can visit the Fannin County Public Library and let Branch Manager Monica Clark know of their interest.
“It is up to those funding agencies to approve,” Lee said.