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Council to hear proposal for library district Monday Dec 5, 2016 at 4:25 PM Dec 5, 2016 at 4:25 PM By Madeline Shannon Grants Pass Daily Courier Grants Pass City Council will consider a resolution Wednesday that would include the city in a proposed independent district to fund libraries in Josephine County. Josephine Community Libraries, a private nonprofit organization that operates four public libraries in the county, needs the approval of City Council to include the city in the proposed district. The proposal is expected to go before the Josephine County Board of Commissioners Dec. 21, when the board could authorize sending the proposal to voters. If eventually approved by voters, a district would be created with the authority to levy up to 39 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value. The proposed district would include parts of Cave Junction, Wolf Creek and Williams. Sending the proposal to the ballot will need to be approved also by the Cave Junction City Council. Wolf Creek and Williams are unincorporated communities, and therefore would be covered by the decision made by the Board of Commissioners. In 2007, in the face of dwindling revenue, the Board of Commissioners eliminated funding for libraries. In the wake of that decision, a grassroots effort was launched to reopen the libraries — an effort that eventually evolved into Josephine Community Libraries, a private nonprofit organization that has operated the libraries since 2009. In that time, JCL has used a combination of volunteers, donations and grants to keep the libraries open on a budget that is about one-fourth the size of what the library had at its peak 15 years ago when it was part of county government. The county leases all four library buildings to JCL for a nominal fee and provided an initial grant of $300,000 in 2008 as “seed money” to help JCL get the libraries open. Also, the city of Grants Pass has been an annual contributing member of JCL, last year giving $25,000 to the organization. JCL’s fall fundraiser is underway, with a target of $175,000 to be raised by Dec. 31. However, all of these efforts have still left the libraries with only part-time hours and a new materials budget that is considered inadequate by many library supporters. “We still don’t have enough open hours,” said Kate Lasky, executive director for Josephine Community Libraries. “We’re bringing it back to voters to be open more hours. It’s that simple.” A countywide library district failed at the ballot box in 2014. The new library district includes precincts that voted yes on the previous measure. If the proposal finds its way to the ballot, only those living in the proposed noncontiguous district would vote on the measure. — Reach reporter Madeline Shannon at 541-474-3813 or [email protected].