Recently there have been discussions regarding Spies Public Library and the City of Menominee not allocating funds from the city budget towards the library. This has caused much concern within our community, so I reached out to the City of Menominee Mayor Jean Stegeman for clarification on the matter. Stegeman says, “the library is funded through a millage, that’s about $200,000. Each county in Michigan on a per capita basis gets a share of the of the penile fines and that money is split between Spies Library and the County Library, so that’s another source of funding. The library was also a recipient of a bequest from the Clar Family in the amount of $1.5 million. Another resident gave $700,000 upon her passing, and most recently another $200,000.”

Stegeman says, “we have had a line item where we had a transfer to Spies Library. In almost all of these years, that transfer made from our unassigned fund balance is what we used to cover the monies that we sent to Spies.”

Stegeman states that we support Spies Library, we’ll get it figured out, but asking them to not make us take money out of our savings account so theirs can remain in place; I really want people to kind of think of the fairness of that. Mayor Stegeman also invites anyone who has comments regarding the Spies Library to join her on the third Monday of every month for the City Council meeting at 6pm.