By Sharon Zwierzyna, Lebanon Express writer | Posted: Wednesday, August 17, 2005 12:00 am
A county-wide library district now appears to be at least three years in the future. The Linn Library League is tentatively circling a ballot date on their 2008 calendars to put the matter before voters here.
In the meantime, League founders May Garland and Linda Ziedrich, both from Scio, have spent the summer educating city officials in several communities about what a library district would look like. They talked with the Lebanon City Council earlier this summer and were excited about the reception they received.
"Our sense in Lebanon is that we have strong support for a district library," Garland said.
Lebanon's librarian Denise Lee agreed. She pointed out that one of the local council's goals for this year is to explore the possibility of participating in such a county-wide district.
Much of that enthusiasm doubtless comes from the fact that a library district would be a win-win situation for the Lebanon area. The key to that is underlevying. The city would agree to cut back that portion of its taxes that goes to the city library if voters approved the district formation and taxing plan - approximately 60 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value. City residents would pay library district taxes in the same amount that they were saving by the city's underlevying for a net out-of-pocket expense of zero.
On the other side of the equation, Lebanon city and out-lying area residents would get a lot more bang for their library bucks. According to Lee, a library district would mean at least 14 more hours every week of library access, a reference librarian and children's library serving in Lebanon and the other participating cities, courier services between libraries, and no non-resident fees which currently are $35 for out-of-towners.
"A library district would really ramp up the services we are able to provide," Lee said. "It would stabilize the funding, bring in more professional librarians, increase the hours of service, increase our book budget, and be more cost effective."
She added that the city would still be responsible for maintaining the library building. A library district would not replace the on-going drive to build a new library building at Academy Square near the new senior center.
Although support from Lebanon city councilors appears strong, Garland said the League team hasn't had time to talk to all the city councils in the county yet. She and Ziedrich plan on completing the circuit by the end of September, and may not be received as enthusiastically in other communities.
In Sweet Home, for example, the funding issue would be more difficult for taxpayers to swallow. Garland explained Sweet Home property owners already support a large number of serial levies for various things, levies that would be impacted by the formation of a county-wide library system. When Oregon voters decided to cap the amount a homeowner can be taxed for each parcel of property, the funding pie for levies and special districts was frozen in size. As a result, Garland isn't sure how the league idea will fly in Sweet Home and other communities that have large numbers of levies or don't current have a library at all.
The current library district plan does call for doing away with the Sweet Home serial library levy from the funding picture, since it would no longer be necessary if a district plan were approved.
"We are still in the formation mode," Garland said. "We are trying to get information out about the plan and get people starting to think whether or not this will make sense for their community."
Right now the final version of the district plan includes all existing libraries in Linn County. If one or two communities opt out of the plan, it would be revised but would go forward, Garland said.
"We intend to keep on going until we get better library services for Linn County," she added.
Some cities are hesitant about signing up for the county library program, Lee said, because they are afraid they'll lose local control and small-town flavor of their current libraries.
"Some people fear loss of local control," she said. "But I think libraries want to spend their money on things that their patrons want to check out. Why would you want to do anything else?"
At this point, about 35,000 Linn County residents do not have free library services. They are forced to pay a fee at any of the city library in the county - Lebanon, Albany, Sweet Home, Brownsville, Scio or Harrisburg.