|
Likes Carden's column
To the Editor:
I'm a long time follower of the work of Gary Carden – his stories, recordings, and above all, his amazing plays for the stage.
It was with real pleasure that I read his columns in The Sylva Herald under the heading "Sylva Storyteller." It heartened me to think this might become a regular feature. I read Gary's book and film reviews regularly, but it seems that he seldom has the opportunity to write about what he knows more about than virtually anyone around – the folkways, traditions, and historical experiences of the people of Western North Carolina.
I look forward to reader responses to this column and to what might follow. Thanks for providing a venue for this talented and knowledgeable writer.
Curtis Wood
Cullowhee
Board meeting seemed like 'altered universe'
To the Editor:
Carey King and Lynn Hotaling did an excellent job reporting on the Jackson County Library Board's Nov. 16 meeting.
I am writing to convey what it felt like to be at that meeting. I attended the meeting to hear (I had hoped) a response to a letter I had written to the board. I did not receive a response. What I did hear follows.
The first part of the meeting was given over to a report by the librarian. Michael Cartwright painted a dismal and depressing picture of the possibilities for a new library. He stated that the county commissioners had a vision that Friends of the Library would play the major role in raising $3 million for the new library, and that the "county sees Friends as instrumental in spearheading fund raising." He then stated that Friends had indicated to him that they could not take on that extra burden. He reported that he had held conversations with three fund-raising professionals, all of whom had told him that Jackson County could never raise the $3 million dollars. He urged the members of the board to discuss this and take a recommendation to commissioners that it is not possible to build a new library and offering them an alternative which, of course, meant the library at SCC. This was later stated explicitly by Ethan Staats, a library board member from Cashiers. Cartwright asked the board to report to commissioners that raising grant money was, at best, a remote possibility.
By this time, I felt that I truly had entered an altered universe. I did not understand why such a dismal picture was being painted prior to organizing the community in broad-scale fund-raising. Further, nothing that was being said coincided with anything I had read in terms of decisions made by county commissioners. After many days of reflection, I can only conclude that the librarian and at least some of the members of the library board are continuing to work against the will of the community. Quite frankly, it made me feel sick that 18 months of work by hundreds of people and by town and county governments appeared to be unraveling before my eyes.
The remainder of the meeting was devoted to grilling members of Friends of the Library regarding their finances and procedures. It felt to me like harassment, so after the meeting I asked the members if they had known that they were to be a major agenda item. Indeed, they did not. They were not on a published agenda nor were they invited to participate in a discussion with the members of the library board.
The questioning was initiated by Howard Allman, chairman of the library board. The other "questioners" were Staats and Don Williamson from the Cashiers area. Their tones were patronizing and "preachy" as were those of the Cashiers librarian. I was reminded of a meeting I attended a year ago when results of a community survey were presented. At that meeting it was the Cashiers librarian (a different one), Staats, and one or two others from Cashiers who told people in Sylva what they should do. It makes me a bit paranoid and asking the question "In what ways will the Cashiers community and the Cashiers library benefit if they thwart a community library in Sylva?
I want to use this event to point out that changes must be made. Any public meeting is subject to the open meeting laws. Agendas must be published in advance. Many other library sites publish the board agendas on Web sites as well as in other ways. If the purpose of the board is to initiate a conversation with other groups who support the library, it should be done as an invitation – to engage in a conversation among equals, not as an ambush. Harassment is defined as "words, conduct, or actions directed at a specific person that annoys, alarms, or causes a lot of emotional distress for no legitimate purpose." That is what the meeting felt like to me, though I do not presume to speak for members of Friends.
I say to residents of Sylva: It is time to take back your library. It is time to watch and pay attention. It is time to ensure that proper procedures and legal mandates are followed.
"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." – Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968).
Linda Watson
Sylva
Friends do not exist solely to serve library
To the Editor:
I have been a member of Friends of the Jackson County Library for more than six years. When I joined the Friends, the bookstore was located in the old Hooper House before it was renovated. We did not make much money then and it was all given to the library. Over the years, under the leadership of Deborah Bardo, JoAnne Caruso and now, Linda Young, the Friends' bookstore has grown and the amount of money we raise has grown considerably. The days when (librarian) Michael Cartwright can come to our quarterly board meetings with a "wish" list and expect to receive a check "in a few hours" are over. We are talking about thousands and thousands of dollars here. We have no direct obligation to fund anything at all for the Jackson County Library. If we want Cartwright to spend more of our money on books instead of furniture, that is our right.
Friends can now afford to promote other areas such as literacy, scholarships and funding for the new library building. And why not? The Friends are a separate organization not tied to the library. We are all volunteers. Many of us work long and hard. We make no salary. We have a right to spend the money as we see fit, notwithstanding Don Williamson's comments to the contrary at the Nov. 16 library board meeting. It is time that Cartwright, the Jackson County Library Board and the Fontana Regional Library stop treating us as a "cash cow" and instead recognize that we have legitimate interests and issues that we consider valuable and worth funding.
So, get over it. Stop taking us for granted and give us some respect.
Terry Gibson
Sylva
|
