Library director reports $57,249 in long-standing replacement fees; council refers policy options to library advisory board

The Southern Pines library director briefed the council on overdue and replacement fee practices and asked that the library advisory board evaluate policy options.

The director said the town eliminated overdue fines years ago and that current outstanding balances—unrelated to fines—are fees for lost or damaged materials and a $5 processing fee that has not been updated. The library’s records indicate approximately $57,249 in unpaid replacement charges dating to 1995. The director said recent annual unrecovered costs run about $2,000–$3,000 and recommended the advisory board evaluate possible forgiveness approaches, including a system purge of very old debts, multi-year amnesty windows, or staff-administered forgiveness for low-dollar requests.

Council members suggested multiple approaches: an automatic deletion for items older than a chosen threshold (some members suggested 20–30 years, others favored five years for targeted amnesty), a combination of age and dollar thresholds for forgiveness, and creating administrative authority for staff to clear debts case-by-case. The council agreed the library advisory board should meet on June 9 to review options and return recommendations to the council for a policy decision.

What’s next: staff will provide background materials to the library advisory board for its June meeting and report back to council with recommended policy options and any statutory considerations such as applicable statutes of limitation for debt.