Sweet Home voters received ballots at the end of the week requesting continued funding for the public library.
The city is requesting a levy of $207,696, a 69.7-percent increase from $122,384. It represents an increase from 48 cents per $1,000 of property valuation to 79 cents per $1,000.
The library’s existing levy expires on June 30. The new levy would begin on July 1 and run through June 30, 2007.
The library proposes adding a new part-time librarian. The library director would go from 30 hours per week to full time. With the additional staffing, the library would open on Wednesdays.
The increased staffing level would provide flexibility, Director Leona McCann said. Late last year, staffing was difficult with one position open and one employee in Portland while her husband was having surgery. That left one librarian, who was sick, to cover the library.
The request also includes $6,000 more per year for books. It reserves $5,000 per year for expanding the library building, and it creates an ending fund balance of $59,000 after four years.
The ending fund balance covers the cost of operating the library for the first four months of the fiscal year, July through November, before property taxes are collected for the year. Right now, the city’s general fund provides cash flow during that period. It is paid back after November.
Sweet Home voters turned down the same request in November 1,195 to 961.
The City Council chose, in December, to place the same levy request before voters again. The council passed on other, lower levy requests in favor of the same request.
Library patron Bill Davis told the council it might be able to request the same amount and pass the levy. After initiating a survey immediately following the November election, he learned that many voters were unaware of the variety of services offered by the library.
Since then, a political action committee has focused on spreading information about the library’s services, including four computers available free for Internet and a variety of books on subjects ranging from hunting, quilting and auto repair to reference materials for school research and antiques. The library also has books on tape, magazines and other periodicals of all kinds, videos of all kinds for checkout and many special programs for adults and children.
Once persons learned what the library has to offer, Davis said, their response toward the library was like night and day. They were more interested in supporting the library.
The PAC is operating with the slogan, “Save our library,” and campaign volunteers warn that the failure of this levy means the library will close its doors on July 1, the beginning of the next fiscal year.
If the levy is turned down by voters, the city would actually have one more chance to pass the levy prior to the new fiscal year, May 20.
To declare a special election, Finance Director Pat Gray said, the city council would need to declare an emergency, which is based on an extraordinary hardship on the community. An emergency services levy might qualify while a library is unlikely to qualify under that criterion.
If voters turned the levy down again in May, the city could make the request again in September, Gray said. An approval by voters then would be retroactive to July 1. After that, the city would not be able to request a levy for the 2003-04 fiscal year, and the library would be shut down until July 1, 2004. It could reopen then if a new levy were approved during the next year.
Ballots are due on March 11. Only voters inside the city limits may vote on the levy. A drop box is available at Sweet Home Police Department until 8 p.m. on March 11.