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January 2, 2020
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Library’s early pay-off is one for the books Retiring debt frees up money for improvements, salary bumps BY TABATHA STEWART SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA
Library Director Tim Miller and President of the board of trustees Jim Duvall serve cake to residents Dec. 16 to celebrate paying off the Elizabeth library two years early. PHOTO BY TABATHA STEWART
More than two dozen people gathered at the Elizabeth branch of the Pines and Plains Libraries District on Dec. 16 to celebrate the early pay-off of the building. The district paid the remaining balance of $796,000 two years early, and representatives hope to use money that was saved through the early pay-off toward building out 7,200 feet of unused space, and to increase pay for employees that they say have not received sufficient raises due to the austerity budget to retire the building debt. “We are very proud to have paid off $1.1 million in debt in 10 years,” said Jim Duvall, president of the Pines and Plains Libraries Board of Trustees. “We’ve asked staff to make sacrifices, and now we can reward them, as well as start attacking some bigger projects.” The building was an industrial warehouse facility and was purchased with a lease by the library district in 2009 for $1,139,600. In 2012 the district refinanced the original lease with a lease-purchase option improving terms for $1,028,077. SEE LIBRARY, P9
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VOLUME 124 | ISSUE 48