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The James V. Brown Library has qualified for the second round of the Payment Protection Program, which will provide $277,700 for payroll expenses for 24 weeks, it was announced by Kristin Caringi, chief financial and chief operations officer at the library. This amount is equal to what the library received in the first round of the program.
Caringi told the library's board of trustees that because payroll costs have come down due to a new organizational structure being implemented, the entire amount will go to payroll costs during the stated period.
The loans are designed to provide an incentive for small businesses to retain workers on their payroll during the pandemic. Loans are then forgiven if the businesses meet certain requirements. The loan obtained by the library from the program had been forgiven.
Barbara S. McGary, the library's executive director, updated the board on the status of the library's newly initiated fine-free policy.
She explained that the initiative includes three distinct efforts in implementing the policy.
"The first is really to reach out to all of those patrons that have expired accounts, delinquent accounts, materials that are out," she said.
She noted that there are probably $300,000 worth of materials that the library would not see returned because people just decide not to use the library anymore.
"We want to reach out to all of those families and get an many materials back as possible," she added.
The second effort would be to reach out to residents that have expired or delinquent accounts, invite them back to the library in order to get a new library card and then the library would forgive any fines owed.
The third part of the effort would be to contact families in the community who would want to support the fine-free philosophy.
She said that the library will be reaching out to families in the community to support other families in helping to relieve fines.
"So that we can support families in the community that are having a difficult time paying those fines and to welcome them back," McGary said.
"It's an opportunity for people to understand why we do what we do and the philosophy behind it. That we are trying to be a part of the solution for all of the people that are living in poverty in our community. I think it's a wonderful opportunity for our community members and families throughout our communities of all economic levels to help other families," she added.
McGary stressed that fines are only forgiven if materials are returned. If materials are not returned, there is a fine and a replacement fee for that, which she added could be "a lot of money for some of the families."
"We want to recover as much of that as possible," she said.