Stafford approves the second round of funding for local libraries to deal with the coronavirus.
The Stafford County Board of Supervisors voted to release the second round of funding to the Central Rappahannock Regional Library. The library will receive $31,700 from the federal CARES Act funding to deal with expenses incurred for Fiscal Year 2021 to deal with the Coronavirus outbreak in their buildings.
The Board of Supervisors previously approved a round of funding for the library totaling $35,000. This also came from CARES Act funding to be used for expenses incurred for FY 2020.
Stafford County received a total amount of $26.7 million from the CARES Act to cover costs for public health safety measures in response to the Coronavirus pandemic. The total amount received by the county was doled out based on the size of the population.
The Central Rappahannock Regional Library began a phased reopening on Oct. 12 with the first two weeks working on an appointment-only basis with a set limit of 25% capacity. This limit was set to allow returning library personnel two weeks to acclimate to the new procedures to deal with the virus.
The library system received criticism for not opening when many libraries in surrounding localities opened much sooner than the Rappahannock system had. Libraries in Prince William County began reopening to the public in early July while implementing coronavirus procedures such as masks and social distancing that had been set through executive order by Gov. Ralph Northam in March.
The Central Rappahannock Regional Library system has been a point of debate for the board, especially in more recent meetings. Stafford had previously withheld a portion of the library’s annual funding because of their slowness to reopen when other localities had.
Another issue that has been brought up in previous meetings has been the lack of proportional power that Stafford County has on the library’s Board of Trustees, in spite of the fact that the county pays the lion’s of funding to operate the system.
While Stafford’s share of annual funding for the library is $5.4 million they only have the same number of votes as Spotsylvania County and Fredericksburg. The two localities share of the funding to the library system comes in at $4.6 million and $1.5 million respectively but still have the same number of votes that Stafford gets in spite of paying less. Westmoreland County also sits on the board but only gets one vote.
The county has considered requesting an assessment of the library system to help inform their decisions on how to proceed with their relationship with the Rappahannock system. Whether that means a renegotiation of the agreement or the county leaving the system and creating their own would depend on the results of the assessment.
