We looked very carefully at whether to spend the money for a new bookmobile in
this time of tightening budgets. The cost of a new vehicle, along with annual operating costs, didn’t seem like the best use of taxpayer dollars when we’re working hard to meet overall increases in demand for library services.
The current bookmobile, a 20-year-old vehicle that served as a library on wheels and stopped at around 20 locations each week, would have cost the library approximately $200,000 to replace, according to the library’s press release. The bookmobile’s annual operating costs totaled $150,879.