The Liberty County Board of Commissioners is scheduled to vote on the proposed budget for the 2026 fiscal year in two weeks, but Live Oak Public Libraries (LOPL) staff say they are not satisfied with the funding that the commissioners say they can approve.
The library budget amount — approximately $1.4 million — is 88% of what Live Oak Public Libraries requested. The shortfall likely means that the county’s two branches would reduce hours and close over the weekend, according to Betsy McCullar, the director of communications for the library system.
At the commissioners meeting Tuesday night, McCullar, the library’s regional director of operations Doug Bailey and multiple library staff members attended to advocate for more funding. Bailey said he requested more money from the county this year to pay staff hourly wages and increased costs of state-mandated health insurance and pensions. The library officials said that while the county is responsible for the library’s facilities and upkeep, the library itself bears the responsibility of paying for staffing and benefits.
“Every year, we create a budget from scratch based on what our anticipated needs are going to be. It just happens that this year, we were hit with a lot of extremely high costs that we can’t get away from,” Bailey said. “The biggest one of that is the health insurance of employees, which is almost double what it was last year.”
Donald Lovette, the chairman of the county commissioners, appeared sympathetic to the issue, but cautioned that the library system was not the only facility that didn’t get the funding they anticipated from the county.
“We’re not picking on them. We love the library. In fact, if I’m not mistaken, we’ve approved their budget every year without question. It is only this year, because of the high increase, that we question it. Only this year.”
It was a tough message for the library supporters to hear.
Bailey said the library faces higher costs beyond covering staff benefits. Administrative costs, the price of books and insurance, as well as broadband internet, have all increased, he said. He said that both of the county’s library branches as well as the county should share these costs.
McCullar said that the shortfall of $190,000 between the library’s requested funding and the county’s approved amount means that the library would have to reduce staff hours. If the budget passes, the Hinesville and Riceboro-Midway branches would only be open from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on weekdays and closed through the weekend starting in July. Currently, the libraries stay open until either 6pm or 7pm on weekdays.
While free summer lunches won’t be affected, the change may curtail services that the library provides such as phonics classes, summer reading challenges and the distribution of free diapers and sanitary items, she said.
“The hardship is gonna be felt by the community immediately,” she said. “We’re learning what’s going on and how much need there is, and the community is going to be unhappy. We want to make sure that they know there may be some wiggle room here if they realize how quickly and how dramatically their services will be cut in this county.”
Commission Chairman Lovette spent several minutes explaining the tough choices in the county’s budgeting process. He said department requests could not always be granted. He reminded library supporters that the commissioners had already reviewed their concerns at a prior budget hearing. He said the commissioners might consider adjusting levels of funding after reviewing updated tax revenue reports.
“I’ve worked for many years in other places where we’ve had to do the same kind of processes when funds are tight. I’ve had to lay off staff, cut staff hours. I’ve been there, done that,” Lovette said. “And then when things get better guess what? We make it better on the staff. We did not dictate to them what to do, that was their decision.”
At least one Liberty County library user was dismayed when she heard about the potential cutback of hours.
“I don’t think that that’s right, because they do so many fun things for the kids during the summertime,” said Shikeithia Ford, 25, a mother of three whose two eldest children start prekindergarten and first grade in the fall. “I mean, I’d rather my kids be at the library than on a tablet at home, when they could be reading, learning things, so that’s the reason why they come here.”
Ford said the library closing at 5 p.m. could impact students who rely on the library for Internet access and who walk to the library after school ends at 3 p.m.. She says that it’s unlikely that students would be able to finish their schoolwork in two hours.
“I’m 25 and I graduated 7 years ago, and I still like to read,” Ford said. “It just sucks that they’re doing that to us when we don’t need another Taco Bell or another fast food joint. We want to read. We want things for our kids to do.”
The Board of Commissioners is expected to vote on the proposed budget on June 17. McCull says in the meantime the libraries plan on taking things one step at a time.
“We are focused on the next two weeks and changing their minds. And we think we can do that. We hope we can do that. We’re not thinking any farther than that.”