To deal with the serious budget shorfall for 2010, the Board has decided to raise fines and re-institute the maintenance fee for borrowing some audiovisual items.

Starting January 1st:

• A $1 maintenance fee will be charged for borrowing each DVD.
• Fines will be raised from 10 cents to 20 cents for most items (This is the first raise in more than 15 years! The $1/day fine for videos and DVDs will stay the same.)

Because fines are calculated when the item is returned, an item due in 2009 but returned after the fine goes up would be charged 20 cents a day. In order to ease the transition, we are holding another Food for Fines drive from January 1st to January 10th. During that period, you can return an overdue item with an item of non-perishable food and owe no fines on that item.

We still have not heard about the fate of POWER Library and other state databases. We will continue to post updates as we hear from decision makers. Thank you for your understanding and support during these difficult times.