ONEIDA, Ill. — The Greig Memorial Library in Oneida is asking the town for help.
Residents will vote on April 4 on a referendum for a property tax increase. Currently, the library collects 15 cents on $100 of the property's assessed value, board member Teresa Fell said. Typically, that means the library gets $6 to $7, but it wants to increase it to 20 cents, meaning the library would get a couple dollars extra.
"We are really trying to restructure a little bit and trying to look down the road trying to get in a better place," Fell said. "Because we are struggling, and just hoping that there's people out there who love books as much as we do."
The library's budget is roughly $30,000, alongside donations and grant applications, but Fell said it's just not enough. The bump in funding would help give the library extra cushion for unplanned expenses like a new furnace or roof down the line, or for other smaller expenses like buying new books.
"Remodeling to be more accessible for our patrons, easier shelving so they can look through and shuffle through easier," library director Autumn Hughes said. "Do we want to add books, any type of materials that are new and coming in? All of that is, a bump is just much needed. It doesn't seem like a lot, but it does, it makes up quite a bit of difference."
Greig Memorial Library opened in 1934, named after Janet Greig, a Knox College graduate and Board of Trustees member, who donated money to fund its building.
Hughes just started working at the library last fall. She is a ROWVA alumna who moved away and came back to help run it.
"Our library here in Oneida is small but mighty," Hughes said. "It's nice to see the little kids and their faces when they come in and they're so excited to see what new books we have or what new program events that we're coming up with. And I feel like it's a feeling of comfortability."
There's no imminent threat of the library closing right now if the tax increase doesn't pass, Fell said, but it could be a future possibility.
If it does close as a public library, it would be willed to Knox College.
"There's a lot of confusion on what a library is. Since we are so small, I'm sure people have lots of opinions. Why would we want to give more money to a library?" Hughes said. "A library is a communication hub. It is one of the last places that we have in America that is the central for all opinions, education, knowledge, period. So we just want to make sure that we are here to supply that."
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