Stevens Library District May Face Dissolution Vote Leaders Of Petition Drive Say Burden From Library Tax Unfair

Stevens County voters may be asked to decide in November whether to keep their new rural library district if officials find enough valid signatures on a petition delivered to library trustees this week.

Leaders of the petition drive say the library district’s property tax is unfair because farmers and others who own a lot of land pay more, and because they think people who don’t use the district’s services shouldn’t have to pay.

Also, Kettle Falls-area retiree Arliene Sparks said, “People I talked to assumed it would be a flat 50 cents (per year) and not 50 cents per $1,000 (of assessed property value).”

Sparks said she was happy with the Kettle Falls municipal library, where she used to work as a volunteer and could get service for $10 a year. She said rural residents near Chewelah are unhappy because they used to be allowed to use Chewelah municipal library for free.

Kettle Falls resident Karen Frostad, a school lunchroom worker, said she was so concerned about fairness that she helped organize the petition drive even though she pays no tax to the district.

“We have some farmers who are paying over $500 a year for that library tax,” she said, conceding that most people pay less than $100. “We’re not against libraries, but it has to be a fair tax.”

Trustees of the Stevens County Rural Library District plan to consult an attorney next week to determine how to proceed, but district director Regan Robinson said she is confident voters will reject the measure if it winds up on the Nov. 7 general election ballot, which seems likely. The district had 63.7 percent support when voters authorized it.

Now Robinson is counting on support from satisfied customers such as Jeff Barnes of Deer Lake, whose children and their friends learned about dolphins this week from a library district video.

“Information is just invaluable,” Barnes said. “How do you put a price on that?”

He said he thinks the library district’s critics “are fostering the philosophy of illiteracy.”

County Auditor Tim Gray said Thursday that there were slightly more than 2,700 signatures on the petition Sparks and others presented, but his staff hadn’t determined how many were valid. He wasn’t certain how many signatures were required, either.

The state law allowing rural library districts to be dissolved apparently has never been used. The law consists mainly of one long sentence that is unclear on several issues, including how many signatures are required.

Gray said the county prosecutor’s office is just starting to research the law, and Prosecutor Jerry Wetle was unavailable for comment Thursday.

Robinson said she thinks the Stevens County district already has proved its worth.

She said the district has almost 10,000 items in its collection, and has negotiated permission for patrons to use municipal libraries in Colville, Chewelah and Kettle Falls and all Spokane County Library District branches. The Stevens County library district has full-fledged libraries of its own in Loon Lake, Suncrest, Kettle Falls and Northport and “stations” in Hunters, Onion Creek and Orient where patrons may use computers and order books.

In July, Robinson said, the district’s 3,000 card holders checked out 7,286 books, videos or other items.

If the Stevens County library revolt succeeds, Ferry County may be next. Frostad said she and others who gathered signatures outside the Colville Wal-Mart store “could have filled several Ferry County petitions.”

Numerous Ferry County residents expressed resentment about their county’s participation since 1962 in the five-county North Central Regional Library, based in Wenatchee.

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WHAT’S NEXT

Legal advice sought

Trustees of the Stevens County Rural Library District plan to consult an attorney next week to determine how to proceed, but district director Regan Robinson said she is confident voters will reject the measure if it winds up on the Nov. 7 general election ballot, which seems likely. The district had 63.7 percent support when voters authorized it.