March 3rd, 2025 by WCBC Radio

The Allegany County Library System is cautious about what their future may hold. Director John Taube tells WCBC they intend to ask for full funding of just over $1.2 million dollars for FY26 but are fairly certain that won’t happen. A recent meeting at the Westernport library had over 100 attendees, including the county commissioners. Taube said confusion about fundraising needed to be clarified…

   

“The misconception was that we were asking the communities to raise the money that in fact we were asking the county commissioners for.  So we wanted to clarify that any fundraising done by the communities is in addition to what we’re asking the county commissioners for because our goal is to keep all six branches open.”

The system is asking for $160,000 more than last year, but Taube says the county is not in a position to finance everyone at 100%…

   

“They were pretty confident that the county was not going to be able to provide additional funding to any agency, not just the library.”