Perry County Library board meeting set for May 6 at Tell City Branch

The Perry County Public Library board met May 6 at the Tell City Branch, giving residents a public look at the people who help decide library hours, programming, staffing and access to computers across the county.

The meeting was scheduled for 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at 2328 Tell Street in Tell City, with Nathan Jochum listed as the organizer on the library calendar. For a county that relies on the library for children’s programming, genealogy research, internet access and bookmobile service, that calendar entry was more than a date on a page. It was the clearest public notice of when governance decisions could be heard in the open.

The 2026 board included Patsy Alvey as president, Kim Luecke as vice-president, Pati Hoskins as treasurer, Jane Goffinet as secretary, and board members Sarah Duke, Brad Harth and Nick Weyer. The board’s long-range strategic plan, adopted June 5, 2024, says the system exists to provide Perry County residents access to materials, resources and services for education, information and recreation through three branch locations and outreach services.

That mission has deep local roots. Tell City’s first library was organized in 1893 by 30 residents who each donated $3 for books. The public library system launched in 1905, received a $10,000 Carnegie grant in 1916 and opened at 9th and Franklin Streets in 1917. The library later moved to Tell Street in 2002 and merged with the Cannelton Library District in January 2012.

Today, the Tell City building includes a technology lab with 15 computers, a genealogy department, a meeting room, two study rooms, a children’s department, a story time room and garage and storage space for the bookmobile. The Perry County Bookmobile has served schools and rural residents in Perry County and, through contract, northern Spencer County.

The library’s public calendar also underscored how closely operations affect daily life. It listed standard branch hours and noted that the Cannelton branch would close on November 3, the first Tuesday of November in 2026, because it serves as a polling location. The Friends of the Perry County Public Library, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, supports the Tell City, Cannelton and Bookmobile branches, adding another layer of public interest in board action.

For residents trying to track how the library is performing, Indiana State Library statistics are compiled annually from the Indiana Public Library Annual Report and are available for individual libraries. That makes the board’s work part of a broader public-accountability system, with Perry County’s service levels and spending decisions sitting in view of both local users and statewide library records.