Cherokee Regional Library Director Lecia Eubanks is waiting to see how many tax dollars the library system will receive from the Walker County Board of Education after submitting a request for funding to the Walker County School Board last week.
The library’s board of trustees is requesting $59,497 from the BOE for fiscal year 2014.
“The Walker County Board of Education has helped support the Walker County Public Libraries for more than 50 years,” said Eubanks in a letter submitted to School Board members at the Feb. 12 meeting. “The past four years have been hard ones economically. Public libraries are also experiencing a continued reduction in state dollars while experiencing an increase in mandates from the state such as the increase in the library’s share of health insurance.
“The three public libraries in Walker, including LaFayette, Rossville and Chickamauga, receive 98 percent of their total support from the Walker County commissioner, the cities of Rossville, Chickamauga and LaFayette, the Chickamauga City Board of Education and the Walker County Board of Education,” Eubanks also wrote in the letter.
She noted that the regional library system’s staff educates Walker County school students after 3 p.m. and during school breaks. The libraries provide early childhood literacy programs, space for tutoring, Internet access and books for research.