The Chapel Hill Town Council unanimously adopted a motion imposing a $65 borrowing fee at the Chapel Hill Public Library for Orange County residents living outside of town limits.
At the council’s Sep. 23 meeting, Chapel Hill Public Library Director Atlas Logan presented a resolution drawn up by library staff asking for the fees to be approved. The move came as a result of the Orange County Board of Commissioner’s May decision to cut its funding for the library as a result of its own budget limitations.
“The amount anticipated from Orange County in the upcoming fiscal year is approximately 33% of the support that they provided to the library prior to the decision to cut funding,” Logan told the council. “The financial burden of this reduction would impact services across the board, including reductions in our collections budget, which means fewer titles and longer wait times for popular titles, fewer programs for children’s teens, adults and families, and potentially hours of operation and staffing.”
Prior to Orange County Board’s announcement of cuts, the Chapel Hill Public Library was receiving upwards of $620,000 annually. Now that number will be decreased by a third each year until Fiscal Year 2029, when it would receive no funding. She said as a result, the library staff recommended declining that county funding so it can begin imposing the fee on July 1, 2027.
“According to the Free Library Services statute, if a county or city operates or makes contributions to the support of a library, any resident of the county or city is entitled to the free use of the library,” Logan said. “So despite historically underfunding the Chapel Hill Public Library and now a complete phase out of funding, we cannot start charging any out of town fees to residents who live outside the corporate limits of the town to make up the funding gap until their contribution reaches zero.”
She said the library estimates approximately one third of card holders would need to pay the fee, and the resulting revenue would come in around $321,000 annually, surpassing the proposed county funding figure for the 2028 Fiscal Year. The library currently has similar fees in place for Chatham, Durham and Alamance County residents who want to borrow titles. Notably, the fee will not apply to CHCCS students living outside of Chapel Hill limits.
“As difficult as it is to make this recommendation to council, this is a necessary step in order to safeguard our municipal library from truly detrimental impacts on our services and operations,” Logan concluded.
Chapel Hill Mayor Jess Anderson echoed that sentiment in her remarks to the council.
“I think I can speak for the board that none of us were hoping that this would be the outcome, but we do need to think about the overall sustainability of our library system and our amazing library.”
You can listen to our most recent conversation with Anderson, including discussion of the library fees, on our latest “Conversations with the Mayors” segment.
Featured image via the Chapel Hill Public Library.
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