TRL slashes budget, plans layoffs

Published 7:44 pm Sunday, March 1, 2026

Timberland Regional Library (TRL) is planning for major budget cuts and staff reductions, the result of a collision of declining revenues, overspending and lost trust in senior management.

In a three-and-a-half-hour virtual budget workshop held on Feb. 10, nearly 300 people attended, with dozens making comments staying until the very end. This was also the case at the February Board of Trustees meeting held on Feb. 25 that lasted three-and-a-half hours in total, including a 70-minute executive session.

At the conclusion of the Feb. 25 meeting, Trustees Brian Mittge, Dustin Loup, Toni Gwin, Mary Beth Harrington and Hal Blanton voted to adopt TRL administrators’ budget adjustment and to approve “force reduction” measures. The budget adjustment that was passed includes $2.3 million in cuts, including $1.9 in books and materials.

“We’ve kept the board in communication, we’ve communicated with the board … We have been working closely with our union, and closely with our board on ‘impact bargaining,’” TRL Executive Director Cheryl Heywood said just before the force reduction vote. “At this point it still remains confidential and we can’t go into specifics.”

After the vote passed, Mittge said, “At this point we’re going to look to make some reductions in force, some staff cuts. We have been in conversations with our union on behalf of our employees, productive discussions and those continue.”

The scale of anticipated layoffs was unclear as of the Chinook Observer’s print deadline, but 30 to 50 positions appear to be in play.

Kylie McQuarrie, who has been active regarding TRL issues on Reddit, expressed her dismay in a letter she sent to the Grays Harbor County Board of Commissioners.

“After a 75-minute closed-door executive session, the board voted to ignore community members’ deeply expressed concerns and sanction the administration’s choice to cut over 50 staff; move multiple rural branches to fully automated, staffless buildings; and slash hours at several other rural branches,” McQuarrie wrote. “Layoff notices will go out … to take effect May 1, and our communities will start to feel the impact immediately. More than 50 staff members will be laid off, which impacts over 1/5 of the library’s frontline staff, at minimum.”

During a 90-minute public comment period during the budget workshop on Feb. 10, many people lodged vehement protests about the prospect of front-line library staff layoffs. Dozens more made impassioned pleas against cutting staff during the Feb. 25 Board of Trustees meeting as well.

Budget crisis

On Jan. 29, TRL Executive Director Cheryl Heywood issued a press release announcing a projected budget shortfall for 2026.

“TRL’s Fund Balance Management Policy requires that we begin each year with 30% of estimated revenues available. After all financial documentation had been completed for December 2025, a review of the beginning fund balance for 2026 revealed that TRL is facing an immediate budget shortfall, and an additional projected shortfall at the end of the year, due to year-over-year rising costs, a decreasing levy rate, and limited annual revenue,” Heywood wrote.

In 2022, for example, TRL revenue totaled $25.9 million and expenses were $24.6 million. By 2025, revenue was $27.1 million and expenses were $30.4 million. The 2026 preliminary budget expected revenue to total $29 million and expenses $32.8 million.

According to TRL annual reports, salaries and benefits make up the largest portion of annual expenditures, with salaries increasing from $11.7 million in 2018 to $17.1 million budgeted for 2026 before proposed staff cuts.

The AFSCME 3758-B union represents the employees of TRL. The union and others have spotlighted TRL administrator salaries as one component of the budget mess.

In the administration unit of TRL:

• The human resources administrator’s salary increased from $98,828 in 2023 to $120,077 in 2025 and $142,963 in 2026.
• TRL also added an employee experiences advisor position at an annual salary of $120,376 in 2025, and is budgeted for $127,335 in 2026.
• The administrative coordinator, whose position listed is under the executive director, made $89,554 in 2023, was re-titled as executive administrator in 2024 at $95,931 and was bumped to $115,718 in 2025 and $133,760 for 2026.
• Heywood’s salary has increased from $155,000 in 2023 to $189,000 in 2024 and to $206,788 in 2025. A third position, special projects coordinator, was added to administration for 2026 at a salary of $105,847.

During the Feb. 10 budget workshop, Heywood explained that the salaries throughout TRL and for the top executives were justified.

“We have given compensation packages over the years to be as competitive as we can be. We have also reduced administration. People said in 2018, 2019, start at the top. We started at the top. I had nine direct reports in 2013. I now have three,” Heywood said. “So when people ask why people are earning more money, it’s because they have taken on substantially more responsibilities in their job description.”

AFSCME called for a review or audit of TRL’s finances and budgeting process.

John C. Hughes, a former The Daily World editor and publisher who covered the formation of TRL as a reporter, summed it up this way … “Incredible. Incompetence merits a raise while the dedicated people in the trenches face layoffs,” Hughes said via email. “I couldn’t put it any better than the taxpayer who admonished the trustees that they serve the public, not an administration that has utterly failed TRL’s staff and patrons. If this decision is not mitigated, it will be the darkest moment in the nearly 60-year history of a vital five-county regional library network.”