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State officials veto library referendum
By Carey King
Come November, Jackson County residents won't cast votes on the library issue.
The N.C. Board of Elections has denied a request from the county to hold an advisory referendum that would have given voters the chance to choose between a downtown Sylva site and Southwestern Community College as the location for a new public library.
"The advisory referendum is not going to be allowed unless we get special authority from the General Assembly," said Jackson County Commissioners' Chairman Stacy Buchanan. "And that's not going to happen because the Assembly's in short session this year."
Due to time constraints, the N.C. House and Senate are unlikely to pass legislation to permit the referendum this election year, Buchanan said. Since the county is not allowed to expend funds for a special election in an off year, the referendum would have to be put on hold until 2006, an option Buchanan called too slow for the county's timeline.
In addition, the SCC Board of Trustees recently petitioned Buchanan to hold off on the referendum, saying the process would create greater divisiveness in a community already at odds over the future library's location.
To resolve the conflict, county commissioners will likely give SCC the go-ahead at their next meeting to begin the college library project, Buchanan said. The library task force made up of Sylva and Jackson County officials will continue to look for a downtown Sylva library site, he said.
While working under a November deadline, the library task force had focused on identifying a downtown site by July. Since the matter will no longer be put to voters, the group decided during its Feb. 23 meeting to take time to update a 1999 library space-needs study before proceeding further.
"It looks like this is going to be our one shot for a library for the next 20 years, and we need to do it right," Buchanan said.
Five years ago, a previous library task force commissioned library consultant and Rowan County Public Library director Phil Barton to do a study of Jackson County's library needs. Projecting for 20 years of use, Barton found the library would need 18,500 square-feet of space.
Since that time, the county's needs have grown, and increased computerization has started to shift the types of services libraries offer, Fontana Regional Library Director Gail Findlay told the current task force Monday. Those changes will significantly alter the amount of space the group needs to seek in its search for a library site, she said.
Citing Barton's familiarity with the matter and his experience with numerous library projects throughout the state over the last decade, task force members agreed to ask Barton to update his work. Should Barton not be available, the county will put out a request for qualifications for other consultants to do the job.
Once the study is complete, the task force and Sylva-based architect Odell Thompson will use its space recommendations as guidelines in a site search. "We can get started on our task, which is primarily to find property," Buchanan said.
Thompson and the task force's work will end once the site is selected, Buchanan said. At that point, the task force will appoint a group of community members - probably representatives from Fontana Regional Library, Jackson County Public Library, Build Our Library Downtown, Friends of the Library and the schools - to collect community input on specific details desired in the library building.
"The task force is made up of public officials. We're the folks who sign checks," Buchanan said. "A different group of people should work on the needs assessment."
After following a series of library study committees and library development plans over the years, Joyce Moore, president of BOLD, told the group she was pleased to finally be starting from scratch.
"I'm excited to start this process where libraries usually start this process. By starting with a needs assessment, we have the freedom and the direction to go out and seek additional money, not just county money," Moore said.
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