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For those who relish reading Photo by Steve Johnson Justin Huntley, 12, browses in the Jackson County branch library in Eagle Point Monday. Eagle Point library supporters hope to raise as much money within the community as possible to bring a new library to town. Donations boost Eagle Point library By PAUL FATTIG EAGLE POINT -- Sarah Ann Mercer loved to pore over books in the small Jackson County branch library in Eagle Point. That passion for the printed word by the honor student, who died in an accident two years ago Monday, has allowed the Eagle Point Friends of the Library to purchase a vacant city lot for the site of a larger library. The purchase was realized with a $80,000 memorial donation in the form of a Medford house owned by Mercer's mother, Carole Mercer, and another $10,000 contribution by another donor. The property owner also reduced the price of the lot near the new city hall. "Sarah touched a lot of people," said her mother, an Eagle Point resident. "One reason I wanted to help build a new library is that this memorial will touch everyone. She also read all the time." The 1995 Eagle Point High School salutatorian died when she was struck by a car while jogging in Santa Cruz, where she was completing her second year at the University of California. The university has dedicated this year's graduating class in honor of the student who was being groomed to become a Rhodes Scholar. Her daughter was an avid runner and traveler who had been to places such as Egypt and Russia and who also relished reading, said her mother, a former teacher. Mother and daughter often went to the Eagle Point library together. "I wanted to create a memorial in something she loved the most -- books," Carole Mercer said. A larger library is urgently needed in Eagle Point, observed branch librarian Jeannette Blankenship. "We're busting at the seams," she said. The library, which now covers about 3,000 square feet, requires about 10,225 square feet to meet the needs of its patrons, according to a study. Library officials said the Eagle Point branch library cannot be expanded on the current site. The goal is to build an 8,000-square-foot facility initially, Blankenship said, that could be expanded at a later date. The library's monthly circulation has jumped from about 2,500 items a few years ago to between 5,000 and 6,000, she said of the facility which serves as the reference center for the Upper Rogue region. In addition, there is at least one class a day in the library. "It's a very busy place," she said. "We need more room." Voters will decide the fate of a countywide bond for libraries in March 2000. But the Eagle Point Friends of the Library, working under the umbrella of the Jackson County Library Association, hope to raise as much of the funding as possible for their new library, Blankenship said. "We don't have a firm amount yet," she said of the building cost. "We're trying to be very conscientious. The money we raise will help increase the quality and size." Meanwhile, recent national studies have indicated a growing interest in reading, Blankenship said, adding, "Reading is coming back in fashion." It never went out of fashion for Sarah Ann Mercer. "One of the reasons she decided to learn to speak and read French fluently was because she was afraid she would run out of books to read in English," her mother said. Although she encourages local residents to support the fund-raising effort in Eagle Point, she says other branch libraries throughout the county as well as the main library in Medford need community support. "We aren't just building one library," she said. "Look at the library system as a human body. The books are what circulates through all of them. They are all connected. "All the communities really have to pull together to support all of our libraries," she added. To aid Eagle Point's library fund, send tax-deductible contributions to: Eagle Point Friends of the Library, P.O. Box 1194, Eagle Point, OR 97524. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA