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Orange County residents living outside Chapel Hill’s town limits may have to pay starting next year to check out materials from the Chapel Hill Public Library.
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The Chapel Hill Town Council will discuss a $65 library fee Wednesday in response to the Orange County Board of Commissioners’ recent decision to begin phasing out its financial support for the town’s library.
The fee, if approved, could take effect July 1. The town would reject the remaining county library payments, staff said.
The council will meet at 6 p.m. in Chapel Hill Town Hall. The meeting will also be livestreamed.
The commissioners, after significant criticism from the public, approved a plan in June that cut the county’s $621,323 annual Chapel Hill library payment to $414,316 this year and $207,108 in 2027-28. The funding will end in the third year.
The change is a cost-saving measure as the county looks to trim expenses in the face of budget constraints and a desire to limit future property tax increases.
But that wasn’t the plan that a town and county task force worked out in 2023, Chapel Hill staff said in a report this week.
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The task force’s recommendation would have adjusted county funding based on the number of in-town residents who use the Chapel Hill library, up to roughly $1.4 million by 2028, they said. The group suggested waiting to see how the county’s new Carrboro library branch would affect the number of patrons using the Chapel Hill library.
The Southern Branch Library, which opened in Carrboro’s Drakeford building last year, is one of two Orange County Public Library branches. There is also the main branch in Hillsborough, and both locations together share a $3.7 million annual budget.
The Chapel Hill library’s current budget is $5.3 million, roughly 79% of which pays for staff. It serves about 64,000 Chapel Hill residents and 15,000 county residents who live outside the town limits, staff said.
County funding pays about 15% of the Chapel Hill library’s expenses.
But Chapel Hill residents also pay taxes that support the county’s libraries, staff said, and data collected so far shows the Southern Branch Library has had little effect on how many people use the Chapel Hill Public Library.
One concern with requiring a fee is how it could affect lower-income county residents who live near Chapel Hill. The fee would only apply to materials that can be checked out; everyone could still use the library and participate in its programs for free.
If the council chooses not to levy the fee, that could result in cuts to Chapel Hill library services or hours to make up the difference, and patrons could face longer wait times for popular books, staff said.
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