Library District Has Friends, Critics Duplicated Services Cited By Opponents

Supporters of the Stevens County Rural Library District appeared to outnumber critics only slightly at a public hearing Thursday to discuss a petition to dismantle the district.

Feelings were strong on both sides.

“You’ve got city libraries, you’ve got school libraries and you’ve got the Internet, and most homes have a computer in these days,” so Colville-area resident Hank Radezky said he could see no need for a rural library district to “duplicate” those services.

Some large landowners are paying as much as $500 a year “for libraries they don’t even use,” Radezky said. “Ladies and gentlemen, I can buy a lot of books for $500.”

Radezky said he pays about $200 a year under the district’s state-prescribed property tax of 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed value, “and that’s just too much. I’m a senior citizen.”

Rod Smith of Kettle Falls agreed that the library district duplicates services rural residents already could get from the Colville, Chewelah or Kettle Falls municipal libraries by paying a fee or, in some cases, for free.

“We never got all the facts the first time around,” Colville-area resident Pat Johnson complained.

Others cited the convenience of new rural libraries in their own communities, and hailed them as tools of economic and social development.

“The library system is not about one individual or 10 individuals,” said Loon Lake resident Earl Perry. “It’s about the growth of the community.”

Bill Shawl, a retired college dean who lives at Loon Lake, said a rural librarian changed his life and led him to a doctoral degree in education by getting him hooked on books.

“I like to pay taxes,” Shawl said. “That’s the way I buy civilization.”

William Frederick said he was delighted to find the district’s Library of the Lakes at Loon Lake when he recently moved to nearby Jump Off Joe Lake.

“For me, it’s one of the best libraries I’ve ever gone into because they’re more than willing to help you,” Frederick said. “If we don’t do something to improve the people, they’re never going to get past where they are.”

In all, about 50 people turned out to give the library district trustees advice on whether to honor a 2,880-signature petition to let voters reconsider their November 1996 decision to establish the district.

Because of ambiguities in an untested state law, the trustees must decide whether the petition is timely.

The law says a district must have been “in operation for three or more years” before it may be dissolved. Library proponents point to the fact that the district didn’t receive its tax levy until 1998 and didn’t open its first library until July 1998, but opponents note that the 63.7 percent vote to create the district was in November 1996, and the district received a state library planning grant shortly after that.

A couple of people suggested waiting a year before voting to dissolve the district.

Tom Drake, of Addy, said he thinks the dissolution petition “is a great idea,” but waiting a year would eliminate doubt about whether the three-year waiting period was satisfied.

Library trustees must come to some decision quickly, though. Stevens County Auditor Tim Gray must have a resolution from the library district by next Friday if the referendum is to go on the Nov. 7 general election ballot.

District Chairman Rodger Hauge said the board will decide what to do at its regular meeting Thursday.