By Jill Fennema –

Last week’s Edgerton City Council meeting was a long affair, with budget discussion taking up most of the two and a half hours of talk.

Dena Berghorst, the director of the Edgerton Public Library was at the meeting. She wanted to be available for any comments or questions that the council had and asked that the council discuss library funding while the meeting was in session so that the public could hear and see their comments on the video if they wished.

The council did not have any questions for Berghorst at the beginning of the meeting, but after passing a variance for Kevin VanderLugt and hearing a report from the public works department, the council turned their attention to the 2022 budget.

The budget committee – which include Clerk Joel Farrington, Deputy Clerk Mary Kreun, Mayor Kirk Bleyenburg, and Councilman Kevin Caspersen – presented a balanced budget to the council with a levy increase of 17 percent. The total levy portion of the budget at that percent would be $649,412 and the total operating budget is approximately $1.5 million.

Councilwoman Kathy Baker asked some questions about the proposed budget. The proposed budget allocated an additional $5,000 for the library. Berghorst had requested $26,000 to bring the city’s support of the library to a level in keeping with the average city funding for libraries in Minnesota.

Baker noted that the budget called for giving the Dutch Festival Committee $10,000.

“We give the Dutch Festival $10,000. Is not the library at least as important as the Dutch Festival? I feel it should be funded with the full $26,000 additional.”

Baker had asked the clerk to provide numbers for a 20 percent levy increase, which would provide enough funds to give the library the requested amount. Mayor Kirk Bleyenburg commented that while he was a library patron and wanted to give the library more support on a personal level, as the mayor and member of the council he did not feel right about asking Edgerton tax payers to pay more for services that many non-tax payers use.

“I also have to sit on this side of the table. Am I going to raise everyone’s taxes, for something that the city does not own?” he asked. “We support it, but we don’t own it.”

A comment was made that perhaps the city should have a vote to see if people wanted to fully fund the library. However, the cost of holding a special election seemed prohibitive.

Baker asked if an informal survey by the Edgerton Enterprise would help provide some input. (A Facebook Survey has been published on social media.)

Councilman Craig Vreeman asked if the library could charge for library cards. Berghorst did not think that was allowed in the Plum Creek Library System bylaws and added that the point of a library is to offer books and services to people who cannot afford to buy them.

The discussion ended with Baker saying she would look through the proposed budget and try to find ways that additional funds could go to the library. The final budget is not approved until the December council meeting.