Fremont County Commission adopts 2025-2026 budget with 4 percent cut to Fremont County Library System

(Lander, WY) – The Fremont County Library System is only facing a 4 percent budget cut this year thanks to a $100,000 grant from the Fremont County Library Foundation and the release of $100,000 from a separate account intended for collections development.

The combined $200,000 infusion helped to offset the $300,000 budget reduction the Fremont County Commission had requested from the library system this year.

Public support

That $300,000 reduction request – representing 23 percent of the library system budget – prompted more than a dozen residents to attend Commission meetings this month to speak in support of their local libraries.

“People need libraries,” Fremont County Library Foundation President Cody Beers said during a June 17 meeting. “They need a place to go, they need a place to meet. Cutting the budget at a rate of 23 percent is just difficult.”

If the library budget is cut any further, Lander resident Sarah Reilley said local teenagers may not have access to the same level of youth programming, and they may lose a “safe place” to gather that “keeps them away from using drugs and alcohol.”

“I’m very scared for our community if our kids don’t have that safe place to go,” Reilley said. 

Other speakers talked about the story time events, book clubs, book sales, and book discussions the community can access through the local library, which provides a range of other educational programs and activities as well.

“(The library) is a center of learning,” local resident and former Lander Library Friends Association President Ray Charles said. “It’s also a place for those who live in the county who do not have access to computing resources to come and have those resources available, and also to have the help they need to learn how to use them.”

Some of the community members who rely on the library for computer access are clients of the nonprofit organization Almost Home Wyoming, which serves unhoused people in the local area.

“The library is the place where they (can) come to get on their emails, to get a job, to ask questions, to find books that will help them – to just be able to be a part of the community,” Almost Home co-founder Lucy Cone said. “It’s such a community meeting place, and for folks who are homeless, it’s their only answer sometimes, when they have nowhere to go to get help or don’t know anyone who can give them help.”

Reduced hours

Later during the June 17 meeting, the Commission voted 3-2 to approve the library’s request to use $100,000 from their collections development account for operations in 2025-2026.

Without the release of those funds, Fremont County Library Board Vice Chair Perry Cook said the library system would have had to eliminate its Saturday hours.

“We feel that this is a very responsible use of the (collections development) funds,” she said. “We need to keep the library open. People want to be there on Saturdays, and if we don’t use that (money), we’re going to have to close on Saturdays.”

Even with the extra money, Fremont County Library Board Member Kristen McClelland said library hours will have to be reduced this year to accommodate the loss of 64 staff hours per week resulting from the remaining 4 percent budget reduction.  

The staff hours cuts will be accomplished by keeping two vacant positions open and laying off one library assistant, McClelland said. 

The remaining library assistant will then have to “split their time” between Lander and Riverton, she explained, allowing the libraries to stay open six days a week, but with more limited hours.

“What we really wanted to do was not reduce services in Fremont County for our patrons,” Fremont County Library Board Secretary Marta Mossburg told the Fremont County Commission this week. “This is the best we can do with the money that we have (to) keep the doors open and have as many people employed as possible.”

Of course, the library system may not be able to find an additional $200,000 in revenue to support its budget again next year, Library Director Anita Marple said this week, but the infusion of cash “gives us a little time to plan” for more potentially “awful” funding scenarios in the future.

“A lot of things are up in the air with (the) property tax issue,” Mossburg said. “The idea of how things have been done might have to radically shift. … Maybe we have to do significantly more private fundraising – and that will immediately be on the table. (We) know what we need to do as far as looking for outside funding. And that will be one of the top priorities going forward.”

Revenue

The library system wasn’t the only county agency that found ways to raise revenues this year in order to offset anticipated budget cuts.

In some cases, department heads went after new grants, or they decided to start charging fees for services they previously provided for free – or raise their current fees to the “allowed amount,” Fremont County Treasurer Jim Anderson said during this week.

“Through the budget hearings that we had with all the various departments, we learned a lot more about what fees may be charged and got a clearer picture of what revenues outside of the property taxes we may be able to reasonably anticipate,” Anderson said. “That does help. I mean, when the tax base begins to erode … short of cutting services, your next option is to (find) new sources of revenue.”

In total, he said county departments plan to generate an additional $420,000 in revenue this year than originally anticipated.

Fremont County Clerk Julie Freese said the departments also found ways to cut a combined total of $2.4 million from the county budget that the Commission adopted this week.

“(That’s) better than we first thought,” Freese noted, recalling that, initially, local officials anticipated cutting $5 million from the overall county budget. “(But) it may not be better next year – or even status quo.”

Fremont County Assessor Tara Berg agreed with Freese, encouraging the Commissioners to stay in contact with state lawmakers who plan to consider additional property tax cuts in the coming years.

“Reach out to your representatives and let them know how you feel,” she said. “Taxes pay for (the) library, they pay for the ambulance, they pay for kids who need help, they pay for you to be able to walk in here and have me help you go back through your title information. …

“Please just keep that in mind as we go through this year, because tonight’s important, but the next year is more important, and we’re looking at some big things and some wild ideas.”

For example, in 2026 the People’s Initiative to Limit Property Tax in Wyoming through a Homeowner’s Property Exemption will ask voters to decide whether to exempt 50 percent of the assessed value of all primary residences in the state from property taxation.

“If that happens, it’s a disaster,” Commissioner Larry Allen said this month. “If that happens, we will probably only have one library.”

The Commission is only required to maintain one library in the county seat, according to Wyoming Statute 18-7-101.