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DEADWOOD – On Tuesday, despite considerable public outrage over a 10% cut in funding for Lawrence County’s libraries as proposed, the Lawrence County Commission approved a budget of $ 66,873,135 for 2022, the lion’s share of which was the addition of public safety, on Tuesday is & Services Center Building and Bond Repayment Fund.
Lawrence County Auditor Brenda McGruder spoke to the commission regarding the budget.
“Right now I’ve set the levy at 4.074 for the general fund and 0.070 for fire safety, for a total county levy of 4.144,” McGruder said.
Commissioner Randall Rosenau asked about last year’s surrender.
“3.966 is the general fund and 0.071 was fire protection, which is just over 4-4.037,” said McGruder.
Lawrence County Commissioner Randy Deibert said he looked at the Spearfish library budget and it reduced its revenue by 30%.
“And we only approved 10%, so … which check do we write you?” Asked Deibert.
“We would write the check that comes up in the budget,” said McGruder.
“So that would be a 10% reduction, not 30,” said Deibert.
Chairman Richard Sleep gave the budget discussion audience the opportunity to address the Commission.
“I would like to thank you for the change from the 30% to the 10%. This will really make our next year easier for all of us and we appreciate the support from the libraries, â€said Patricia Brown, Director of Deadwood Library.
“We appreciate that you are also looking for various sources of income,” said Sleep.
Brown also said that each of the libraries had written grants over the past year.
“I know Spearfish received about $ 20,000 in grants and Deadwood about $ 15,000, so they’re looking at all possible ways to support our services,” Brown said.
Deibert said he supported the libraries.
“We just have to look at the funding mechanism,” he said. “I don’t know the answer, but I was assigned this assignment five years ago, reported it to the district library board, and am still working towards this goal of getting you money. Be it fees or a special mill levy or whatever it is. For my part, I support the libraries and I think most commissioners do. “
A public hearing on the budget took place at the Commission meeting on 7 September. Eight people came out in favor of funding local libraries and requested that the commission reconsider a proposed 10% reduction in library funding – from $ 492,282 in 2021 to $ 443,054 in 2022.
Commissioner Richard Sleep was the only vote against approving the budget.
“I’ve been thinking long and hard about whether or not to vote for it, and I think there are some areas that we could change a little and budget a little less,” said Sleep.
The lion’s share of the $ 43.6 million budget increase for Lawrence County in 2022 is the addition of the Public Safety & Services Center Building and Bond Redemption Fund.
In anticipation of the construction of a new public safety and services center, the project was estimated at $ 41,000,000 and a bond repayment of $ 2,701,500.
The total budget for 2021 was $ 23,287,153.
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