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Fontana system could aid county library fund-raising efforts
By Carey King
Fontana Regional Library could begin to play a bigger role in the development of a new library in Sylva should the Jackson County Library Board choose to use the three-county library system in its fund-raising efforts.
Fontana development manager Karen DiBari offered her help last week (Jan. 19) to a group of about 25 people gathered at the library to form the planning committees requested by Jackson County commissioners.
County leaders asked the Library Board in September to create two planning committees, one for fund-raising and one to research building design. Those committees will report back to commissioners in January 2007, paving the way for a library to open at Jackson Plaza shopping center in July 2009.
"We would be the entity that would apply for grants," said DiBari, noting Fontana's non-profit 501(c)(3) status. "Primarily (Fontana's role would be) administrative and processing the paperwork behind the scenes."
Fontana also has a pot of about $6,000 that could be used for Jackson County library development efforts – the last dollars left from a $25,000 appropriation the N.C. General Assembly made to Fontana in 1999. The original appropriation has been used in part to pay library consultants who served as advisors during Jackson County's many-year library debate, said Fontana director Gail Findlay.
For the past 62 years, Jackson, Macon and Swain counties have combined funds to create the six-library system. Each year, each county appropriates money to Fontana for its libraries. This past year, Jackson sent $275,000 for its library in Sylva and $110,000 for the Albert Carlton Community Library in Cashiers. Macon gave $355,000 for its library in Franklin, $106,680 for the Hudson Library in Highlands and $33,320 for the Nantahala Community Library in Topton. Swain contributed $174,000 for the Marianna Black Library in Bryson City.
"Jackson County commissioners have worked really hard in past years to get that number up," said Findlay, noting that Macon County has traditionally been the system's most generous contributor.
"Pooling our resources means that we have services that the stand-alone county libraries might not have," she said. "We look at the regional book collection as almost one."
Fontana has a staff of about 45 people, and that includes Sylva librarian Michael Cartwright, who has been on the job since August 2003.
DiBari coordinates grant applications for each of the libraries so they don't "bump into each other" and apply for the same grants, Findlay said.
"We won't get involved in any local fund-raising activity unless invited," she said.
Library supporters at last Wednesday's meeting debated the way planning committees should be organized and the path fund-raising should take.
"Up until now, the Jackson County Library Board has been an advisory board. We really don't have that much power. You kind of show up at the meeting and look at the numbers and say, 'OK, Michael, that looks good,'" said board Chairman Howard Allman. "This is new ground we're plowing here."
The Jackson County Library Board is appointed by county commissioners and in past years has met about three times annually. Fontana's regional board meets every two months and is composed of three representatives from each county library board – this year, Jackson's are Allman, Ethan Staats and Vance Davidson.
Concerned that splitting into two committees would block communication between the two groups, those at the Jan. 19 meeting decided to delay committee organization until at least their next session, set for 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 2.
The fact that county residents have been so divided on the library issue – whether it should operate in conjunction with Southwestern Community College or stand alone, whether it should be sited on campus or downtown – may actually make the Jackson County project more attractive to funders, several said.
The fact Fontana staff, the Library Board, Friends of the Library and Build Our Library Downtown are now working together "can make a great story," said Sylva architect Odell Thompson.
Thompson agreed to help with preliminary designs for the structure as long as others are involved.
"It's not just a matter of me going over to my office and whipping out a drawing," he said. "Our project has to be part of a bigger project."
That effort will involve gleaning ideas from people who don't usually attend library meetings – schoolchildren, potential library patrons from different regions of the county, and members of the county's Hispanic and African-American communities, several said.
"This concept of repairing damage is metaphorically part of the site," said Thompson, noting that library is to be built on the spot in Jackson Plaza where Western Sizzlin' steakhouse burned down. "(It includes) the social rebuilding as well as the physical rebuilding."
City Lights Bookstore owners and BOLD president Joyce Moore said she hopes BOLD can "disappear completely" as the planning committees begin to work together.
"There's really no reason for us to exist as a separate organization," she said.
Davidson agreed, adding that he is glad library supporters are beginning to "pull the wagon in the same direction."
"It can't be 'business as usual' the way it was the past three years," he said.
See www.newjackson library.org for up-to-date postings by county commissioners, Sylva leaders, Fontana representatives and members of BOLD, Friends and the Jackson County Library Board. The site is sponsored by county commissioners and intended to serve as a clearinghouse for the planning committees' work.
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