By Liz Shepherd
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — Heather Barron has officially been appointed as Warsaw Community Public Library’s new director.

Barron was appointed during an Aug. 14 board meeting. She currently works as the northwest regional coordinator for the Indiana State Library and has prior directing experience at Bourbon, Plymouth, and North Webster Community Public Libraries.

Barron’s start date is Oct. 2, with a $100,000 salary. After 42 years of working at the library, Ann Zydek, WCPL’s current library director, will retire in September.

In other business, Zydek said WCPL’s summer reading challenge was a success. Children’s Librarians Technical Assistant Duane Herendeen and Clerk Jacob Shriner agreed to take pies to the face if certain goals for the challenge were reached by patrons. Since one million pages/minutes were logged by the youth department and over two million pages/minutes were logged by all summer reading participants as a whole, the goals were met.

The board also approved:

• The transfer of $100,000 in WCPL’s operating fund to the rainy day fund.
• Reducing the library’s 2023 budget by reducing the rainy day fund by $300,000.
• A resolution to authorize electronic fund transfers with insurance companies the library partners with.
• WCPL continuing to be part of the Indiana State Library Consortium for public library Internet access.

WCPL’s Board of Trustees’ next meeting is at 4 p.m. Monday, Sept. 11.