William Yardley’s piece Timber (and Its Revenues) Decline and Libraries Suffer addresses the ongoing tragedy in this Southern Oregon County which closed all 15 of its libraries due to lack of government funding back in early April.
On May 15th residents of the county head to the poles to raise their property taxes so they can reopen the libraries. A similar measure last November was rejected by the voters and “experts expect the vote to be close” this time around. It is always a tough proposition, no matter what the issue, to ask people who don’t have enough money to begin with to raise their own taxes.
There is no reason it should have come to this.
Congress had approved monies in 2000 to cover all the losses the counties ensued due to the country waking up to the real timber crisis (that we are cutting it all down) and reducing the harvest levels.
The program expired under Republican watch last September and was not renewed.
There was also funding to keep things going in the Iraq war spending bill. Bush vetoed that.
The fact that the funding of libraries had anything to do with a war spending bill in the first place is indicative of how sick our political process has become.
“Some officials say the solution is to restore the timber industry.” Dennis C. W. Smith, a county commissioner, says the library closings “is a case of the chickens coming home to roost” and blames the environmentalists or the “segment of absolutists that will not tolerate any use of federal lands for timber resources.” Obviously Mr. Smith does not use the library.
There are so many astonishing ironies here:
Back in 2000 the residents of Jackson County approved a $35 million bond measure to build or renovate all 15 libraries. None of these monies can be used for operational expenses so while the libraries remain closed the construction and renovations continue.
The county is also home to the town of Ashland whose annual Shakespeare Festival is one of the better ones on the planet. The town has Shakespeare in its bones and consequently is a literate hi-spot of the region yet its library remains dark.
The ALA (American Library Association) has issued a statement regarding this fiasco. Unfortunately, it is addressed to the voters of Jefferson County urging them to vote yes in the upcoming election and not to the powers that be in Washington that got them into this mess in the first place.
All that wasted money in Iraq.
and we can’t invest $8 million to keep the libraries functioning in one of our own communities? We have to make the residents of the county, many who are already struggling to make ends meet, choose to raise their property taxes to keep the public library open. Shame on us.
The NBCC petition to save the book review section of the Atlanta Journal Constitution just notch its 5000th supporter. The Save Our Library organization in Jackson County has a little over 800 supporters. We need to turn it up a notch. Surely we have an equal interest in keeping our libraries open as we do in saving our book review sections.
There are 9 days left before this election.
Links:
Save Our Library System website
Click here to add you name to the list of supporters
San Francisco Chronicle article from early March
Oregonian story on closing day
Previous Book Patrol Posts:
March 4. Southern Oregon County to Shut Down Entire Library System
April 8. The Dark Ages Officially Return to Jackson County