The Whitefield Public Library seeks a 50 percent funding hike

The Whitefield Public Library seeks a 50 percent funding hike in 2024. The WPL draft budget would raise the town appropriation from $65,000 to $99,480, and the bulk of the increase would go toward existing costs. It would bring Whitefield Library closer to covering its true cost of doing business, estimated at $138,000 in 2023 and $122,000 in 2024. Under the proposed budget, the library would continue to rely on alternate funding sources — just not as heavily. The amount of WPL’s total costs covered by donations, grants and volunteer labor would fall from 47 percent in 2023 to 18 percent in 2024 under the draft budget.