Keep Our Libraries From Closing

On November 8th, Vote Yes for Libraries

Keep Our Libraries From Closing

Octavian Kress, Staff Writer

On Tuesday Morning a bright yellow sign saying, “CLOSED?” was draped across the doors of the Douglas County Library in Roseburg. Though a question now, that sign might stay there forever if citizens don’t vote to create a new library district.

Currently, our county government has no plans to fund the library system the year after 2017. In November, a no vote will mean our public libraries will have to close while a yes vote will create a new library district and libraries will continue to provide free services to the town of Winston and to all of Douglas County.

A new district will cost tax-payers about forty-four cents per thousand dollars of property value. On average this equals $5.50 a month. This means that the average home owner would pay $66.00 a year.

Learning and other extra-curricular activities will be lost if our local public libraries close. The reason why libraries are closing include people buying books online or from Kindle is making the libraries lose a lot of profit and their funding. Funding has also gone down because the federal funds from logging keep going down each year. By funds, I mean they won’t get any more support or money for new books. If our libraries close our community will lose a lot of important programs and resources, like early learning programs and access to free wi-fi.

All the libraries in Douglas County might close unless citizens vote to create a new library district. This means that on November 8, 2016 everyone needs to vote yes to create a new DC library district, so public libraries and their services can continue to exist in Douglas County. Vote yes to keep our library.

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