By T. Scott Boatright
After months of dliberation, the Lincoln Parish Library (LPL) Board of Control has determined updated employee compensation/job descriptions as well as increased Events Center pricing after passing motions concerning both during Thursday Board meeting at the LPL’s Community Room.
Rental prices at the Events Center will increase in what Events Center Committee Chair Bill Jones said was a long-needed move.
“Our rental prices have been far too low for far too long,” Jones said. “They’ve been so low that the Events Center isn’t coming close to even paying for itself. We need to do this to be financially competitive with other providers in the area that are charging much higher rates.”
In addition to changing rental rates, the Board of Control also tweaked Events Center policy including offering nonprofit organizations renting out space at a 10% discount provided they have the proper 501c3 paperwork proving they are a nonprofit.
The cost of renting the entire Events Center facility from $1,200 to $2,000 per day with a charge of $1,500 per each additional day of use. A deposit of $500 will continue to be required for use of the auditorium, Ruston Room or the entire facility.
Individual one full-day rentals for Events Center rooms will be as follows:
• Dubach Room $600 (up from $300)
• Choudrant Room $500 (up from $300)
• Simsboro Room $500 (up from $300)
• Dubach and Choudrant Rooms $900 (up from $500)
• Choudrant and Simsboro Rooms $800 (up from $500)
• Auditorum $1,200 (up from $600)
• Ruston Room $900 (up from $800)
Half day rentals will increase accordingly. For a full list of new prices see the pdf at the bottom of this article.
As far as a new director for the Events Center to replace Marcie Nelson, who moved on to become the president of the North Central Louisiana Arts Council, the Board of Control passed a motion to combine those duties with the ones already being provided by LPL Marketing Specialist Kacey Richard.
“We think those duties will mesh well and we’ll move her office into the Events Center,” Jones said. “And that will free up our library staff to do library work. This will also require that we hire some additional part-time people to handle any after hours closeup of the Events Center.
“Bear in mind (LPL Director) Jeremy Bolom has been doing those duties along with his normal library duties.”
The Board also unanimously passed an updated sliding wage scale based on years of experience at the library and also changed some of the job descriptions (roles and duties) of employees without the need for any additional hires.
In other business, the LPL Board of Control will continue operating under the same hours as 2023 with the exception of closing the library at 5 p.m. on New Year’s Eve.
Bolom also told the board he would check into library revenue sharing monies received from the state of Louisiana.
“I was told that it was supposed to be $32,000 at the end of last year,” Bolom said. “I think it’s supposed to come in chunks, but we only got it once last year. We haven’t got that kind of amount ($32,000) for a really long time, but we only got $10,000 at the end of last year. It’s been as low as $5,000 or $7,000. We’ve only got $10,712 of it.
“That’s been the one flag I will check with the State Library on — I don’t know why the amount changed.”
Eight of the Board of Control’s nine members were present at the meeting with Deborah Gilliam being the lone absentee.
