POST FALLS — The Community Library Network's $7.9 million fiscal year 2025 budget was unanimously approved by trustees Thursday evening following a few 11th-hour attempts to make changes.

Trustees also went into executive session and upon returning to the public meeting unanimously voted to end the network's hiring freeze.

Trustee Tim Plass proposed reducing a 3% staff salary increase to 2.5% and creating a new line item in the budget for "staffing flexibility" or "library hour flexibility." Chair Rachelle Ottosen reminded him Interim Library Director Lindsey Miller-Escarfuller had explained in a previous discussion that change would be complicated.

"I do not believe that is a good course of action," Miller-Escarfuller said. "It's something that could be done but it's not something that I would recommend."

Trustee Vanessa Robinson said she was unclear what was meant by adding that line item other than "it would be almost like a slush fund type situation," she said. She said it is already the process to find money elsewhere in the budget when certain line items go over.

"I don't think we need to start complicating things and making line items of little pockets of money," Robinson said, adding that she would be against that.

Plass reiterated he wanted to cut the salary increase by half a percent.

"I want to give the library director the flexibility to add hours back or to change part-time help or something," Plass said. "If we don't cut it someplace, then it gets spent. I want some flexibility, and I would reduce the salary increase, the salary line item some, and make another line item that's just 'library hour flexibility' or I don't know what to call it."

Miller-Escarfuller said she believes the board needs to "press pause" on the library hours situation and wait for the new director to arrive.

"The new director is going to have a lot on his plate, and I don't know that making mid-year hour adjustments is something that is standard practice for the library unless there is a budgetary reason to do so," she said, adding it would be best to use a master plan to allow the new director time to configure the best way to serve the community.

"I think it's a little late in the budget game to make a significant change like that," Vice Chair Tom Hanley said.

The board moved on to Hanley's prepared statement discussing community members' requests to cut less funding from children's programming. Trustees unanimously decided to cut the network's Freegal Music subscription, which provides free music streaming to patrons, and take that annual $17,000 and put it back into children's services, janitorial services and library collections.

Hanley said to his knowledge, the main goal of children's programs is to increase literacy and develop interest in reading. Although Freegal is a popular service with as many as 7,000 usages per month, "in my opinion, Freegal is offered strictly for entertainment value, and I struggle to identify any literary merit for this costly service."

Hanley said many of the emails regarding children's services "seemed to be a lot of homeschooling people and others that were concerned about the children's programs."

"I know we took a bit of a beating last year on it. It's popular, so I guess it's kind of a discretionary call," he said. "Do we value children's programs ... or do we continue funding what I think is 100% entertainment? I don't know that there's any redeeming literacy value to a music streaming service."

The Freegal subscription is expected to be active through May.

Visit communitylibrary.net to see the 2025 budget worksheet.