Library funding likely to change with county’s budget

HARTINGTON – Two of the county’s libraries will be receiving more in annual county funding, while one will be receiving less.

The Cedar County Board of Commissioners have been discussing over the past several months changing the way it funds county libraries after Hartington’s Public Library made the request for funding to be based on library budget, specifically requesting 10 percent of its budget or $18,000. Traditionally, the Hartington, Randolph and Laurel public libraries evenly split the county’s funding, each receiving $6,500 last year.

Directors from the three libraries attended the commissioners meeting earlier in the month.

Hartington and Randolph’s library directors serve a large percentage of rural patrons, and offer robust youth and adult programming.

Hartington’s library has the largest budget, with health insurance being a major contributor to increased costs. Randolph’s library budget does not include health insurance benefits as all of its employees work parttime.

Along with materials, programming and wages, library budgets also include utilities; facility maintenance; Internet, phone, software and technology expenses; databases for online collections; supplies and postage.

Bob Parsons, director of the Laurel Learning Center library, said there hasn’t been much in the way of community programming for the past three years due to COVID-19 and then construction at its site at the Laurel- Concord-Coleridge school facility. However, this summer several in-person Summer Reading program activities have already taken place or are scheduled.

The Learning Center’s budget was the lowest of the county’s libraries due to its dual-purpose structure of serving as both the Laurel public library and the LCC school library - available to all patrons in the school district.

Costs of facility maintenance and some employee wages are offset by the school district.

At last week’s meeting, the commissioners reviewed each library’s budget in detail.

“The libraries are not the same in what they do,” said Board Chairman Dave McGregor.

“The fact that we used to give them equal probably you could say is not fair. I think these two libraries here (Hartington and Randolph) do a lot of summer stuff, do a lot of after school stuff. They are just loaded with pro grams here.”

The commissioners approved a change for the upcoming fiscal year funding to $13,500 to the Hartington library; $7,500 to the Randolph library; and $3,500 to the Laurel library.

Transit travel approved

At last week’s meeting, the commissioners approved travel for the Cedar County Transit manager and scheduler to attend the Transit Mobility Alliance User Conference in Orlando, Fla., this fall, which will provide in-depth information on the software the Cedar County Transit uses to operate.

After about 30 minutes in ex ecutive session, the commissioners voted 2-1 to approve the travel with Dick Donner the dissenting vote.

Donner has been vocal about his opposition to Transit Manager Nikki Pinkelman traveling long distances for training events, especially out of state.

Nebraska Department of Transportation officials said in a previous meeting that there are required in-state trainings including in person and online programs for Pinkelman and transit employees. However, out-of-state training events, like the software training in Florida, is optional.

Pinkelman previously said she strives to select optional training events to attend with an overall goal to help improve Cedar County Transit.

Attending the software conference last year was “amazing,” Pinkelman had said, with many efficiencies being implemented from knowledge gained from the conference.

Salary study

Carla Schmidt, county roads superintendent, presented a comprehensive salary study conducted by the Nebraska Association of County Officials.

Almost all - 81 out of 93 - of the counties responded to the survey of salaries in 2023 with the data compiled and available for search in a number of different catego ries.

Schmidt was able to compare salaries by district and also with counties containing cities of similar population sizes. Although it wasn’t exactly “apples to apples” comparison as job positions weren’t well defined.

“I was curious to see where we fell,” she said.

According to the data, Cedar County’s road department salaries in 2023 came in slightly lower but comparable with the average at $22.18 per hour. Cedar County’s average salary in 2023 was $21. 87 per hour, she said.

“We’re very close there,” she said. “It’s just something to look at to see if we’re in the ballpark. We’ve been talking about that for a long time. Is our starting wage high enough? And are we paying enough and so forth. It was nice to have those numbers.”

Using the data, Schmidt was also able to compare her salary as a highway superintendent to others across the state.

In a similar study conducted in 2018, Schmidt and the commissioners were surprised to find her salary as the lowest in the state at $39,000. The statewide average at that time was more than $54,000.Since then,the commissioners have been working on bumping up her salary over that time to get it more in line with others in the same position.

“Back then my concern was two-fold. Of course I was not happy I was the lowest paid in the state. But also when I retire, Cedar County will have a really tough time hiring a replacement at a lower salary,” she said.

According to the 2023 data, the average salary for highway superintendents is now at more than $69,000, with Schmidt’s 2023 salary at about $60,000.

“We’re still a little behind. I think we have to continue to work on it. I’m not demanding a raise or trying to sell you on it, ” she said. “It’s food for thought when your’e trying to keep up with the Joneses.”

The NACO survey may be used to analyze wages for other county employee positions that aren’t elected or appointed.