Ottawa County, Michigan Ottawa County Press Releases Update

Check it out: Ottawa County sends $820,000 to the libraries  

Bradley Slagh, Treasurer of Ottawa County, is sending out $820,766.85 in checks to nine local libraries from fines collected by Ottawa County Courts.  

The Michigan State Constitution of 1963 requires that all penalties collected for violations of the state penal laws be divided into court costs, statutory fees and penal fees. The penal fines are placed in a library fund to be used for the support of public libraries and a county law library. 

“In recent years the total has ranged from $700,000 to over $1,020,000 depending on the amount of citations written using the state penal code and the fines levied by the court,” Slagh said. “This year the total fines collected and disbursed are down almost $200,000 from last year’s high water mark of $1,020,000.”

Claire Sheridan, Director of the Spring Lake District Library said “Penal fines are an important part of library funding for Spring Lake District Library and other public libraries in Michigan. The Spring Lake District Library uses the funds to purchase materials; to fund programming, such as the recent history and author presentations; and as a supplement to the budget.”

Attached is a copy of the spreadsheet and graph showing the amount and percentage of the distributions to each library in Ottawa County. 

• Library+Distribution+2016.pdf