<< Back 5/28/03 Speakers reject library plan By Scott McLeod The overwhelming majority of the 200 people attending a public hearing last week had harsh words for county leaders considering moving the main branch of the Jackson County library from downtown Sylva to the community college campus in Webster. “We’ve spent a lot of money trying to improve downtown in the last six years,” said Sylva Mayor Brenda Oliver. “To take the library out of downtown would be quite a blow.” Oliver urged county commissioners to slow down and discuss the issue with the Sylva Town Board, saying she has identified a couple of potential sites in the downtown area. Speaker after speaker criticized the plan to build a joint library on the Webster campus with Southwestern Community College. The concept for the joint library appeals to commissioners and the local authority that runs the Jackson County Library because they could get more bang for their buck. SCC would pay the majority of the cost, and Jackson County citizens would get a larger, modern library that would stay open for more hours than commissioners alone could afford. And since the county already has a “credit” with the community college for previous projects, it would only have to contribute a portion of the projected $6 million cost to build a 30,000-square-foot library. Commissioners have also promised their support for keeping a branch library somewhere downtown. But all the bells and whistles of the joint library do not appeal to the library users who showed up last week. They were critical of both the project itself and how it has been handled. “Only members of the joint task force who are paid staff of SCC and the Fontana Regional System were involved in researching this — no members of the public or library users,” said Jason Kimenker, who owns Soul Infusion Tea House and Bistro and is president of the Tuckaseigee Sustainable Business Community. “The minutes from those meetings state the need to bring the public into the process, repeatedly, but it wasn’t done. The public trust has been violated by not involving the citizens of Jackson County.” The task force studying the project worked from March until October of 2002, and its final report said it would be possible to build a joint library that could serve the needs of Jackson County library users and the students of SCC. While the meetings were open, there was never a formal call for a public input session or a formal public hearing — until last week. County board chairman Stacy Buchanan, however, refuted claims that the project had been kept under wraps, referring to a January 1999 article in the Sylva Herald discussing the possibility of the joint project. Several speakers questioned the task force’s findings that a joint library could adequately serve the public and students. “We would be among the first to experiment — in a rural area — with joining the main public library with a community college library,” said Sue Ellen Bridgers. The task force looked at joint facilities in other parts of the country, but all of those were in more urban areas and the joint facility was not the main branch of the library. There are no joint facilities in North Carolina. Others pointed out that SCC’s mission is to serve not only Jackson County but Swain, Macon and the Qualla Boundary. “We are being asked to help build a library that serves students in Jackson, Macon and Swain counties,” said Bill Kirwan, a former librarian. Still others worried that, in time, SCC’s interests would take precedence over the needs of Jackson County library users. “I am concerned that our library would become their library,” said Jean Lewis. Buchanan said he plans to ask commissioners whether they want to proceed with the library at their June 3 meeting. If they agree, plans to begin the process of selecting an architect could begin at the June 10 meeting, construction could start next year and the library could conceivably open sometime in fiscal year 2005-2006. “In my opinion, it is time to move forward with the joint library,” said Buchanan.