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FOL refuses to give all funds to library
By Carey King
Talk wasn't so friendly when Friends of the Library members showed up at a meeting of the Jackson County Library Board last Tuesday (Nov. 16).
"I think the bottom line is that over the past couple of months a very confrontational attitude has developed between Friends of the Library, Fontana Regional and the board," said board chairman Howard Allman, adding that he hoped to be able to "alleviate that."
Friends members attended the meeting to find out more about progress toward the new county library, said Friends president Linda Young, but found instead that discussions centered on the group's lack of contributions to the annual library budget.
"It was like an ambush," Young said.
While the Friends group usually makes donations to the library based on requests from county librarian Michael Cartwright, the group has yet to fulfill Cartwright's September appeal for $18,000.
"If you're going to be a Friends organization, you've got to raise the money," board member Don Williamson said. "You need to have a meeting, write a check and help out your library. That is your main, if not only, purpose," he later wrote in an e-mail to the group's officers.
In past years, Friends have assured the library of an annual $2,000 contribution, then given an amount 10 times that based on revenues from their bookstore on Main Street. Last February, the group fulfilled a $10,000 wish list Cartwright brought before them. That wasn't the case, however, in September.
"We didn't have enough money to give him everything he wanted," said Young, citing significant changes the group has made since she began as president in July.
A membership drive has boosted Friends' numbers from 83 to 120, infusing the organization with new energy and a desire to refocus on its charter goal of promoting reading county-wide, Young said.
"We want to promote reading literacy, not just give funds to the library," she said.
In light of that mission, the group has decided to divide its future donations into three funding streams – 50 percent to the existing library, 25 percent to a fund for the new library, and the remainder to community service projects. Friends have established scholarships for Western Carolina University and Southwestern Community College students, and hope to begin a Books for Babies program at the hospital, Young said.
Cartwright's request for $18,000 was put on the back burner because "officers wanted the new members to be fully informed as to the use of our finances," Young said.
That reasoning, however, wasn't good enough for some library board members, who insisted that library budget planners need to know whether to expect funding from the group.
"I know I could not run my library without knowing that money was going to be there," said Cashiers librarian and board secretary Dottie Brunette. "If you think it can only be $2,000, so be it, but say it."
In the past, Cartwright said, Friends have let him know what they'd fund within a few hours of his requests, normally picking and choosing items on the list they wanted to support. This fall, however, he's gotten no definite answers.
"In the past, every dime they raised went to the library," Cartwright said, calculating that Friends' average annual donation of $20,000 is about 5 percent of the library's total $400,000 yearly budget.
"It's an important 5 percent," he said.
While the majority of funding from the county goes toward salaries and operating expenses, Friends provide items like computers, printers, chairs and other equipment, he said.
The allocation of donated dollars is of concern to Friends members, many of whom say the library's collection of books and magazines is too small, Young said.
"(Cartwright) requested $18,000, the great majority of which has to do with providing chairs, upholstery and other items for the staff. Only $6,500 was requested for materials which would be accessible to the public," she said.
Board member Williamson, a former president of Cashiers' Friends group and a Fontana Regional Library board member, said it was "nonsense" for the library to have to detail how dollars are spent. "Once the Friends get into saying that, they're attempting to run the library, and that's not their purpose," Williamson said.
The question of the $18,000 request will most probably be put to a meeting of Friends' entire membership Dec. 4, Young said. To help "cover what they might need" in the meantime, treasurer Bill Johnson wrote the library a check for $2,000 in the days following the board meeting, she said.
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