GALION — The staff and directors at Galion Public Library are planning for the future, and they have high hopes, despite help from the state that seems to dwindle each year.

With the help of Galion Community Foundation, an endowment has been established in the name of Galion Public Library. It was initiated by Bruce Angell, a board member for the foundation.

Angell, a long time library patron, who also makes a personal donation every year, reached out to Galion Public Library Director Vicki Eckenrod when the idea came to mind.

“I feel bad that this didn’t happen long ago. We’re talking about the future now,” Angell said.

The set up of this endowment will allow Galion Public Library to receive larger donations, invest what they are given, and also collect interest on them to provide a monetary return on that money for years to come.

If the library were to set up an endowment of this nature on its own, it would create a lot of paperwork, legalities, and headaches. Working out this process with the Galion Community Foundation eliminates that extra work and expense.

The Galion Community Foundation will collect the funds, invest them with Edward Jones Financial Advising, and then act as a custodian for the disbursement of the money in increments to the library over time.

As with most state-funded organizations in the last 10 years or so, Galion Public Library has gradually seen a decline in the amount of money it receive to operate. The amount of funding changes from year to year, and there is no formula for predicting what it will be.

“It’s hard to create and run a budget on ‘what-ifs’”, Eckenrod said.

Not only does the unknown aspect of funding make basic budgeting difficult, but it hinders any opportunities for programming that would greatly benefit library patrons.

There is so much that the library would like to do, but the funding isn’t there,” Eckenrod said. “As with anything, prices go up, but the resources of pay for goods diminish.”

Future plans at the library include an online- program that allows patrons to work from home, and a need to update the non-fiction part of the library to keep it relevant.

“We are trying not to get stuck and to move with the times,” Eckenrod said.

As of earlier this week, the account for the Galion Public Library Endowment is open for anyone who wants to make a donation. It can be just a donation, or something left via a will, or something else.

The account was started with a donation of $1,000, but will need more to grow to sustain the library into the future.

Donated funds need to be ear-marked for the Galion Public Library Endowment via the Galion Community Foundation.

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