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By Carey King
Members of Build Our Library Downtown hope the break in momentum
toward building a joint library for Jackson County and Southwestern
Community College will give them the chance to have their concerns
not only heard, but listened to.
County commissioners put plans for a joint library feasibility
study by Florida firm Harvard Jolly Clees Toppe Architects on
hold Dec. 9 after two members of the appointed joint library task
force resigned amid controversy over the architect selection vote.
"We have a window of opportunity to try to turn this around
a bit," BOLD member Linda Watson said at the group's Dec.
11 meeting.
Since the joint library task force began this fall, it has welcomed
public input, but BOLD members say the group's mission has been
too limited to actually consider their concerns. Commissioners
charged the task force with studying the feasibility of a joint
library at the SCC site only, a goal that precluded consideration
of other library sites and structures, BOLD members said.
Throughout the fall, BOLD members have called the joint library
a "done deal" since an SCC-based joint library has been
the only possibility task force members could study.
Commissioners' actions thus far have been examples of "logical
fallacy," BOLD member Lou Spagna said.
"Don't inductively decide to locate at SCC. Deductively decide
where (the library) should be built," Spagna said.
"The question is what you are going to ask the voters to
choose between. That's what the task force should research. People
in the county want to know what their choices are," he said.
BOLD members want to put alternatives to the Webster site on the
table, especially the option of locating the library in the old
courthouse building. Since a committee chaired by commissioner
Roberta Crawford is already working on plans to refurbish the
courthouse, BOLD members think the projects would be a perfect
fit.
In a draft letter BOLD members plan to send county commissioners
this Friday (Dec. 19), they ask for time to present their ideas
to commissioners Jan. 13 at the meeting where commissioners will
discuss the task force's future.
The letter asks commissioners to put all actions related to the
public library on hold until their scheduled meeting with the
Sylva Town Board Feb. 4, and that they continue to work with Sylva
leaders throughout the library decision process.
BOLD members want the county and town to co-sponsor a study of
the courthouse site, followed by a referendum during May primaries
to allow citizens to vote between SCC and downtown Sylva proposals.
They then want commissioners to establish a new study group composed
of representatives from the Jackson County Library Board, Friends
of the Library, Fontana Regional Library, BOLD, business and arts
communities, library patrons, and appointments by the town and
county boards. With the exception of the two boards' appointments,
the group should be composed entirely of volunteers, BOLD members
say.
BOLD members have made similar requests to the commissioners before,
but those requests went unheeded.
At the commissioners' June 17 meeting, BOLD member Phyllis Foxx
requested that $7,500 of the $50,000 allocated for joint library
study be earmarked for a "visioning" process. That same
night, BOLD member Joyce Moore asked that the town of Sylva be
represented on the joint library task force.
Both requests were turned down.
In hopes commissioners will pay more attention this time around,
BOLD members pledge to use their "demonstrated skills as
grant writers, community organizers and activists, researchers,
artists, designers" and "knowledge and passion for the
library, town, county and the mountains of Western North Carolina"
to help commissioners see the project through.
"I am willing to give a tremendous amount of time to find
funding for this. One thing we can offer (the commissioners) is
manpower," Watson said.
Commissioners' exclusion of BOLD's past requests, plus confusion
over the task force's meeting and voting procedures, has led many
BOLD members to believe that commissioners are set on "moving
everything in the county out to Webster," BOLD member Peggy
Hurt said.
Commissioners' plans to structure the county around its geographic
center ignore the heritage that makes Jackson County distinctive,
said Stacy Lake, another member of the group.
"You don't preserve a living culture by putting it behind
glass cases at a university. You live it. Part of that is recognizing
the history of the area so people can walk around it every day.
You can't do that at SCC," Spagna said.
BOLD member Odell Thompson wants commissioners to see his group's
forthcoming letter as an olive branch of sorts.
He said he hopes to "communicate to them that regardless
of what's happened in the past, whatever deals they've made under
the table, this last series of events has given them the out to
do right."
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