City seeks answers to library closures

Representatives of every level of government — city, county, state and federal — addressed about 100 people at the Historic Ashland Armory on Monday night about the fate of the Jackson County Libraries.

None had a solution to the impending closure of the libraries.

ABOVE: Community members gathered in the Old Ashland Armory to talk about keeping the county libraries open. FRONT: Ashland’s former mayor Cathy Shaw talks with a community member during small group discussions at the Historic Ashland Armory on Monday night. John Seligman | Daily Tidings

John Snider, a representative of Congressman Greg Walden's office, said the federal government has helped fund county libraries for many years.

"But that times up," he said, noting that mid-western and eastern politicians are reticent to fund local services in Southern Oregon. For years Jackson County has used federal money to fund libraries and other county services, but Snider said it's time for Jackson County "to say, 'what if we don't [have those funds].'"

Jackson County Commissioner Dave Gilmour said the county coffers are unlikely to bail out the libraries, either.

"Last year everything stalled out," he said. "It's going to get worse next year if we don't get [federal] funding."

Ashland City Administrator Martha Bennett said a city property tax to fund an Ashland-only library should be considered a "plan C."

But, she added, this might be the most viable short-term solution at this point.

"If we don't look for a local solution we will have libraries closed for at least a year," she said. "But I don't want you to hear me say this will be an easy thing."

The 15 libraries in the Jackson County system are slated to close on April 6. Since the early 1980s Jackson County libraries, and other county services, have been funded by Congress. But a budget crunch caused legislators to cut the Rural Schools and Community Self Determination Act from the federal budget last year.

Former Ashland Mayor Cathy Shaw, who attended the meeting representing state Sen. Alan Bates, D-Ashland, and state Rep. Peter Buckley, D-Ashland, said, "what is put together as a library problem might also be called a public safety problem."

She said public safety is the only part of the county budget, funded through voter approved property taxes, that can't operate at the levels voter approved for them.

Jackson County voters have approved $8.2 million in property taxes to fund libraries and it costs $8 million to run them, according to Shaw. And voters have approved $8.3 million to fund public safety and the budget allocation for public safety in this fiscal year is $26.4 million, she said.

A community dialogue committee, a sub-group of the Ashland Coalition, organized the meeting. After the presentation by the different levels of government, participants formed smaller groups to devise what Holly East, the executive director of Peace House and the evening's moderator called "possibility statements."

Lora Chamberlain, who has a radio show on KSKQ and has been active in the library issue since it surfaced, said her group "pretty much agreed that an income tax is the best way to fund libraries."

Shaw proposed earlier this month that county commissioners put an income tax measure on this May's ballot to fund libraries. County officials have said revising the tax code in such a short time frame would be difficult.

Chamberlain also suggested that libraries be "charged with a public outreach campaign on the usefulness of libraries."

Chuck Keil, a former school board member who is married to City Councilor Kate Jackson, said his group "felt very strongly that there must be a county-wide solution."

Ashland City Councilor Eric Navickas said the budget shortfall is directly related to the war in Iraq. "We need to bring our troops home and end this bloody war," he said, to applause.

Ashland Planning Commissioner John Stromberg said his group wants a short-term local solution, as well as a long-term solution to wean the libraries off of federal funding.

"To assume they are going to carry us is a weakness in the system," Stomberg said.

Staff writer Robert Plain can be reached at 482-3456 x. 226 or bplain@dailytidings.com