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Select Board urges library to lower town request after audit found unreturned unspent funds
Summary
Selectwoman Lorrie Carey said town auditors found the library had not returned unspent budget funds in prior years and urged trustees to use trust funds or proceeds from the 1913 Library sale to lower the town funding request for 2026.
During the Jan. 14 Advisory Budget Committee meeting, Selectwoman Lorrie Carey urged the public library trustees to reduce their 2026 town funding request following an audit finding that unspent library funds had not been returned to the town in previous years.
Carey said the library holds approximately $400,000 in trust funds—about $300,000 of that without restrictions—and has proceeds available from the recent sale of the 1913 Library building. She told the committee the Select Board would like the library to “step up” and fund its 2026 operations from trusts or sale proceeds rather than increase the town’s tax burden.
The Select Board proposed a $106,000 reduction in the operating budget in anticipation of not having to fund library expenses in 2026, but board members did not vote on warrant language at the Jan. 14 meeting and said they would consider how to structure such reductions, including contingency language tying Fire Station CRF appropriations to passage of other warrant articles.
Committee members asked the library director and trustees for clarifications about the Member Dues line item and the Materials budget; those department-head questions were deferred to the next meeting for the library’s director to answer. The Select Board also noted it would not pursue retroactive recovery of prior unreturned funds, focusing instead on ensuring compliance going forward.
No formal votes on library appropriations were taken at the Jan. 14 session; the committee will revisit the library’s budget request at its next meeting.
