Over the past four years, Buck Memorial Library has expanded its programs, services and the items it carries. It now provides regular children’s programs, events, new books, DVDs, games, computer access for seniors, internet for remote workers and social services. When cruise ships come to town, it becomes a makeshift visitor center.
The expansion has followed Bucksport’s redevelopment in the decade since its paper mill closed, as the town attracts young families and people who work remotely or outside of town. Other segments of its population are aging or have limited resources and rely on the library to bridge the gap.
Buck Memorial has depended on grants, fundraising and the interest on its endowment for most of its budget, plus annual contributions from the towns of Bucksport, Orland and Verona Island.
But now, when combined with historical underfunding, that business model is no longer enough to fund the library’s increased offerings, according to director Lisa Ladd. Without more municipal help, it will have to dip into its endowment and jeopardize its future, she told towns in a January letter.
“[Libraries] are doing so much more, as is appropriate,” she said. “But all of that comes with a cost.”
The financial challenges of the Bucksport library are another example of how Maine towns are struggling amid a difficult budget season that has forced them to weigh community resources against basic services. Adding to the dilemma are changes in federal funding sources and more unique local issues.
Bucksport and Orland are preparing for tax increases as they look to take ownership of dams the former paper mill’s successor wants to abandon. And Verona Island voters recently turned down an additional $1,500 contribution to the library at their annual town meeting.
Buck Memorial receives less municipal funding than most other Maine libraries its size, according to state data. As its programming has grown to meet today’s needs, expenses are also increasing for books and supplies.
“Historically, this library … was not serving everyone in the community,” Ladd said. “There was a really great need to provide services and programming for families, especially, but also intergenerational programs. We definitely have done that.”
She was hired four years ago as its first credentialed director and has modernized and digitized operations. With more than 2,000 registered patrons and counting, that means needs are growing every day, she said.
But asking for more money is difficult in an area where many residents have limited disposable income and town budgets are already strained, she said.
Without additional town funding, the Bucksport library will likely have to start charging nonresidents for cards and cut back hours, programs, books and materials. Ladd expects the doors will stay open, but if the library had to run off its endowment alone, she estimates it would close in eight to 10 years.
“It goes so against everything in my profession to limit access or cut hours or cut programs,” she said. “But the fiscal realities that we, as a nation, are facing right now are basically forcing that hand.”
Nationwide uncertainty about federal grants and Trump administration cuts to federal and state library program funding has added more urgency.
Through the Maine State Library, the Institute for Museum and Library Services provided access to interlibrary loans, internet access and digital subscriptions to e-books, audiobooks and research sites, according to a letter that several Hancock County library directors recently wrote to state lawmakers.
Locally, the three towns currently contribute between $0.28 and $2.76 per person toward Buck Memorial each year. Ladd wants to see that number gradually increase to $12 each by 2028. That would more than double town input to about $92,000, from roughly $34,000 last year.
Ladd has also asked neighboring Stockton Springs and Prospect to contribute, and the library is starting to develop a strategic plan.
Its requests have met with limited success so far. After Verona Island voters said no to raising additional funds, Bucksport and Orland have yet to vote on their budgets this year, but some local officials have suggested in public meetings that the library rely on its endowment instead.
Once around $2 million, that endowment has taken a hit from stock market volatility. The library has also already dipped into it twice for major projects, according to Ladd. It can’t save the library.
“I really am hoping, after all the good work that we have done here, that we are not going to go backwards when I retire,” she said. “Which could potentially happen if we don’t get the financial commitments that we need.”
