Creating a monthly salary for the Elberta Town Library director position was a source of debate during last week’s Elberta Town Council work session.
Since the creation of the library, director and former town councilwoman Betty Wood has served in position as a volunteer without salary. Recently, the town’s library board approached the council with creating a salary for the position.
Elberta Mayor Jim Hamby said the decision was sent to the town’s personnel committee for study, and the committee did not recommend to create the paid position.
“It’s not the recommendation of the personnel committee to pay a salary for a library director at this time,” Hamby said.
Elberta Library Board member Yvonne Gruber, who attended the meeting, said not having a paid director position for the library could cause the town to miss out on grants and additional funding help from the state library association.
“The state requires you to have a paid librarian,” Gruber said. “If you opt out of it, they won’t receive any more state aid.”
Several council members expressed their concerns with creating a paid position out of a volunteer one.
“We’re depending so much on volunteers for everything else,” Councilman Steve Kirkpatrick said. “If they start coming in wanting pay, too, what are we going to do?”
Councilman Michael Hudson said the matter deserved more study.
“If we’re receiving more than it is going to cost, then we should continue but it’s something we need to look at,” Hudson said. “The library budget was based off of volunteers serving. What I’m afraid of happening is would that set precedent for other volunteers to need a salary, like our reserve police officers or our fire department. Where do you draw the line at?”
