TIFTON — A Tifton-Tift County Public Library representative said the library has had a successful year so far but faces financial hurdles down the line.

Karen Thompson, branch manager for the library, came before the Tift County Commission July 10 to give an update on the library for the past year and moving forward.

She said the library has served 78,384 people, a more than 30% increase from last year, and had attended more than 300 outreach events where the library had served an additional 10,571 people.

Thompson said the library had reacquired its funding agent from the board of education, which it had been lacking since 2013.

The library has also secured three grants: a Prime Time Literacy grant that would be put toward providing fun family experiences to the county’s minority populations; the National Endowment for the Arts Big Read grant, making Tifton-Tift County the only library in Georgia to receive the grant which will be used to bring reading and learning experiences of various cultures to the community; and a digital literacy grant from the Public Library Association and AT&T educating the Spanish-speaking population of the county in basic computer skills.

Thompson said the biggest accomplishment has been the summer reading program.

The library had anticipated 700 registrants but more than 1,000 had applied for the program, with some coming from outside the county.

However, she admitted the library is facing problems as well, particularly in the financial area. Thompson said the costs of the state health benefit plan, which includes the library, had increased for full-time employees, leaving the facility paying upward of $19,000 for each of its four full-time workers by the end of the next three years, an increase of $8,000.

She said she has already reduced the hours of one of her full-time employees, the children’s librarian, to 29 hours and is attempting to fill another full-time position, also scaled back on hours, after another of her employees had vacated the position.

Thompson said she would need $14,000 from the county to bump her children’s librarian back to full time, but only an additional $30,000 could get the other position up to full hours. She added only the $14,000 is an immediate need.

She expressed pride in what the library has accomplished during the past year, especially with its tight budget, and said she and her employees are determined to put every last cent from the county to good use.