Berkeley County asked to fund Imagination Library after new enrollments paused

Jamie Lymer, state director at Marshall University’s June Harless Center, told the Berkeley County Commission on Feb. 20 that Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has delivered free, age‑matched books to thousands of local children but has paused new enrollments here because of a growing funding gap.

Lymer said the program mails a high‑quality book to enrolled children each month from birth through age 5 and cited program research and endorsements used to support its impact claim. "It's more than just books for kids," Lymer said, describing research the presentation attributed to the Dollywood Foundation and other partners.

Why it matters: Lymer asked the commission to consider a local contribution to sustain currently enrolled children and to allow the program to reopen new enrollments. She said the county has roughly 3,700 children enrolled in the program and about 2,050 of those are in Martinsburg, and that maintaining the existing cohort without new enrollments would cost roughly $93,000 a year under current postal‑cost assumptions.

Program costs and funding request: Lymer provided program cost figures used in the presentation — about $31 per child per year and $155 for the full five‑year book collection. She said a recent postage increase of about $5 per child per year has materially increased the program’s deficit. Lymer described a range of possible county support she would accept, mentioning figures in the tens of thousands and citing a county‑level ask in the range of about $45,000 to $58,000 as one feasible option depending on whether opioid settlement funds or general funds are used.

Lymer also said the program now qualifies as an approved use of opioid settlement funds and offered to help the county meet the reporting requirements that follow such allocations. "If you had a commitment from the commission — hey, we'd love to allocate some opioid funds — or general funds — here's what we can come up with," she said.

Local partners and redistribution: Lymer and Tiffany Arnett of Child Law Services described local partnerships and redistribution efforts for undeliverable books; Arnett said her office uses the books with foster children and in abuse/neglect cases and that the books help open lines of communication. Arnett said her program serves roughly 200 families annually and provided a letter documenting book redistribution examples.

What’s next: Commissioners expressed appreciation and identified local follow‑up options — community foundations, Rotary clubs, the county public library and private donors were named as potential partners. County staff said they are in budget review and could not make a commitment at the meeting. Lymer left contact information and asked staff to share leads for local fundraising and partnership outreach.

Provenance: Topic introduced at SEG 344 and the presentation continued through SEG 1269. Key supporting segments include program overview (SEG 367–412), opioid funds discussion (SEG 522–546), enrollment counts and fundraising (SEG 726–736), the enrollment pause (SEG 821–839), cost and projected operating need (SEG 801–891), and partnership remarks and closing (SEG 895–1269).

Speakers (first reference in body): Jamie Lymer, state director, June Harless Center at Marshall University; Tiffany Arnett, Child Law Services representative; Chair (Mister President) and various county commissioners (unnamed in transcript).

Authorities cited in meeting: opioid settlement funds (described as an approved expenditure for the program in the presentation).