RANCHESTER — The Sheridan County Public Library System continues to struggle with staffing shortages, Library Director Cameron Duff told the Library Board of Trustees Wednesday.
Library Director Cameron Duff lamented the lack of staffing at the libraries. He said the libraries have been short-handed for the past two months and have not been able to hire adequate additional staff. After posting advertisements for two open part-time positions since July, the library received very few responses, Duff said.
Before the board, Duff attributed the staffing shortage to the libraries’ low starting pay. While companies around the country increase hourly wages to $15 or more, it would be expensive for the libraries to offer new employees comparable wages or increase all employees’ salaries commensurately.
Increasing new hire’s salaries to $15 per hour would require an additional $50,000 per year in the library’s budget, and increasing all library employees’ salaries commensurately would require an additional $150,000 per year. Although, per board treasurer Chad Saeler, the library’s budget is “on track and looking good,” there may not be room in the budget to allow for these pay raises.
Although the libraries are able to offer benefits to full-time employees, Duff said, the library is still using a pay scale developed in 2008, with a starting pay of $9 per hour.
Without adequate staff, Duff said he has had to pick and choose which departments can stay open. Sometimes, he explained, departments are staffed by only one person. At one point, Duff had to shut down the Clearmont branch. At another, he had to shut down the Wyoming Room. He is now unable to return the Sheridan County Fulmer Public Library to its pre-COVID-19 hours — during which it was open until 9 p.m. rather than 7 p.m.
“I’m doing my best,” Duff said, “but I’m almost working seven days a week at some times…[and] I can’t be in two places at once.”
Hiring additional staff, Duff estimated, would alleviate 75% of the issues the library faces.
Duff asked the board to replace the two part-time positions he has had trouble filling with one full-time position, a change the board approved at Wednesday’s meeting. Duff and the board did not specify the facility in which this new full-time position would work.
The other issue of note at the meeting was an update on installation of a generator at the Fulmer branch. Although the generator installation was initially delayed because the Federal Emergency Management Agency requisitioned the generator to send it to Louisiana in the aftermath of a hurricane, the generator is now on track to be installed in early 2022.
The library was closed Thursday morning for a planned power shutdown. Another shutdown, Duff said, will take place next week but will be completed before library business hours. The final shutdown and actual installation of the generator will occur Jan. 3, 2022, after which the generator will be operational.
The board will meet next Nov. 17 at the library’s Clearmont branch.
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October 23, 2021 at 03:00PM
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Library Board of Trustees meeting highlights staffing shortages, generator installation - The Sheridan Press
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