-Messenger photo by Bill Shea
Laurie Hotz, who is retiring from her post as youth services librarian at the Fort Dodge Public Library, looks toward Mayor Matt Bemrich as he prepares to read a proclamation of thanks to her during Monday’s City Council meeting. Hotz joined the library staff in 1982 as an aide in the children’s department. She later became children’s librarian and eventually youth services librarian. She has worked in the library for about 43 years, starting in the Carnegie building on First Avenue North and moving into the new building by the City Square in 2000.