Hood River County, OR Library to Close, After Residents Vote Down District
By Allison Zisko Jun 4, 2010Concerned citizens of Hood River County, OR are scrambling for ways to continue providing library services to this community of 21,000 residents, now that voters by a close margin have axed a plan to create a special library district that would have kept the three-branch Hood River County Library open.
Last month, residents 54 percent to 46 percent defeated the special district, a move that would have generated $1.2 million, collecting $140 in library taxes from the average homeowner. (Previously, there was no dedicated funding.) Voter turnout was 59 percent.
The library is slated to close June 30, with its ten full-time equivalent and 20 part-time staffers laid off. Hood River County residents who previously were able to borrow books freely from neighboring counties' libraries through a library consortium will now have to pay from $75 to $135 for library cards at those libraries.
Looking for solutions
The community is now trying to decide how to move forward.
"We need to bring people together and try to figure out what we can and cannot do," Michael Schock, president of the Library Foundation and chairman of the political action committee Save Our Library, told LJ. "Now we have to think outside the box and consider various options. There is not a simple solution any more."
Schock said there is "almost no likelihood" that the library will remain open past the end of the month.
The county, which opted to close the library for lack of funds, will continue to pay for the library even after it closes its doors. A bond issue approved by voters in 2003 to expand the library does not retire until 2015, and $20,000 has been set aside in the county's 2010-2011 budget to pay for the library's utility bills.
System and consortium
The Hood River County library first opened in 1914. In 2003 it expanded and renovated the building on State Street through a $3 million bond passed by voters and supplemented by $1.3 million in grants and gifts.
Besides the State Street branch, the library offers services at its Parkdale branch, located in a community center, and its Cascade Locks branch, located in City Hall.
These three branches, which are part of the Gorge LINK consortium of public, medical and school libraries in three counties, serve a community comprised of year-round residents, those with summer homes, and vacationers.
Hood River County occupies about 500 square miles in the northeastern part of the state, bordering Washington. Its primary source of revenue has long been the timber industry, but that industry has been hard hit in recent times. Meanwhile, state tax caps restrict local property taxes.
A weak economy
Last fall the county, faced with a lack of money to maintain the library, opted to close the three branches June 30, the end of its fiscal year, since the library is not considered a mandated service. A task force charged with exploring ways to keep the library open proposed the idea of a special tax district, and agreed on a levy of 70 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation.
Careful consideration went into establishing that levy, with one eye on present costs and the other on projected expenses down the road.
The library's operating budget for the current fiscal yearis $500,000, a figure that does not include the costs that fall under the county's department budget, said June Knudson, who has served as library director for the past 35 years. Under the current budget, Knudson was forced to cut staff by 20 percent and limit library hours.
The budget for the prior fiscal year was $730,000 and provided for full staffing and regular hours but no acquisitions, she said.
When considering a stand-alone division, Knudson said, the task force had to determine how much it really costs to run a library properly. "The $730,000 budget did not [support] a healthy library," she said, since it did not provide funds for acquisitions.
After assembling the myriad costs, including those the county would no longer fund, the group then projected them out for ten years to account for anticipated increases, Knudson said. The projections were a necessity since by Oregon law the amount of money charged per assessed valuation cannot change once voted on.
No good options
After the "no" vote, discouraged residents regrouped almost immediately. At a meeting held a week later and attended by several county commissioners, Save Our Library began to debate alternatives.
Options included running the library under private management, keeping the library mothballed until (and if) the county can once again provide the funds to operate it, selling the property and rebuilding a library elsewhere, having the Library Foundation run the library through donations, and more.
"There are a lot of ideas being discussed. None have come to the forefront," said Schock.
"There was a feeling the library would be supported," he continued. "We had a simple solution for solving the problem. Now it's a convoluted problem."
If a new library district is proposed, the deadline for getting it on the November ballot is Sept. 2.
Previous closures in Oregon
Hood River County in not the only county in Oregon that has weighed whether or not to support its library system.
As previously reported in Library Journal, four libraries in Josephine County closed in 2007 after a loss of federal timber payments and then reopened two years later under the non-profit Josephine Community Libraries, an action considered a short-term fix. And nearby Jackson County Library Services outsourced its library operations to Library Systems & Services, LLC(LSSI) two and a half years ago.
Seeking a a "healthy library"
Although Knudson cannot offer an immediate solution to Hood River County's dilemma, she knows what she would like. "I want a healthy library," she said.
The most important discussion in the ongoing debate, she added, is "Are you going to keep [the library] forever? Are you willing to compromise?
"I think everyone's intent is to have something on the November ballot."
