The County Commissioners want to hear from residents. The Commissioners do not think the library ranks high on the priority list of services for Jefferson County residents and so they’re diverting library tax money for non-library purposes. This is our opportunity to tell them what WE think!
Significant cuts are looming in services and hours. Please attend one of the Jefferson County Citizen Input Meetings listed below and tell the Commissioners:
- JCPL is an essential service
- Ask them to restore JCPL’s full voter-approved funding level of 3.5 mills
- Tell them you support a Library District
Wed. Sept. 28 7-8:30 p.m.
Arbor House at Maple Grove Park
4600 W. 32nd Ave., Golden
Tues. Oct. 11 7-8:30 p.m.
Buchanan Park Recreation Center
32003 Ellingwood Trail, Evergreen
Thurs. Oct. 20 7-8:30 p.m.
Peak Community and Wellness Center
6612 South Ward St., Littleton
Eventually, we hope to solve these funding problems by making JCPL into an independent library district. But at best that will not happen until after a 2012 election. In the meantime, funding cuts will mean much deeper cuts to services. It will take all of us to ensure the Commissioners know that we need the essential services provided by JCPL.
Send email support for JCPL to commish@jeffco.us or write the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners at 100 Jefferson County Pkwy, Golden, CO 80419.
And please remember, folks: even though we’re all volunteers, we can’t do this for nothing. Legal help is expensive and getting more so. The County Attorney has filed counterclaims to our lawsuit and the Court will require that we retain a mediator even though there are no settlements to mediate. The mediator is likely to cost several thousand dollars.
If we’re going to protect the Library from blatant political meddling and protect our tax money from the sticky fingers of the County Commissioners,
it’s up to us!
Thank you,
Tom Atkins
Please help with a donation. Unless we stand up as citizens, voters, taxpayers, and library patrons, the County will take our money and leave JCPL to fend for itself on a lower budget.
Click the DONATE button below to make your contribution with a credit card through PayPal’s secure servers. If you would like to donate by check, please make the check out to Save Jeffco Libraries and mail it to:
Save Jeffco Libraries
PO Box 63
Golden CO 80402-0063
PLEASE NOTE: At this time, your donation is NOT deductible for federal or state income tax purposes.
I talked to one of te librarians at Wheat Ridge who said that the latest was an idea that betwwwn them and Edgewater was a reduction in services and fewer jobs. Was wondering if Bellmar, or other big libraries are going to feel any pain.
The county has not yet announced JCPL’s final funding level for 2012, so the Library Board has not made any final budget decisions. Based on discussion and presentations at Library Board meetings, it appears likely that they will reduce hours of service accross the board, so the sacrifice would be shared accross the system. Other cuts, including a reduction in the books and materials budget, are also likely, depending on the funding. Little or none of this would be necessary if the County Commissioners would fund the library at its voter-approved mill levy – or even at the level it was in 2009.
I have listened to the comments that the Libraries need more money, but I have never heard once that you believe that the Library re-evaluate how they are running their operation. Why doesn’t the Library look at raising user fees, sharing administrative services with the County versus doing it themselves, charging for things that have been historically free and letting patrons decide how valuable the service is to them. Once you start charging for specialized services you will know what the real value is to the citizens. Stop government, including the Library System, from continually asking for money, yet not willing to look at other ways of doing things.