IS THE STARK CO DISTRICT LIBRARY DESERVING OF REPLACEMENT LEVY?

LINK TO BIO PAGE

NOTE:  This blogger is a frequent user of the Stark County District Library "online" presence.  Moreover, The Report uses SCDL facilities to conduct interviews of various Stark County candidates for office.

Here is Stark County District Library (SCDL) CEO/Executive Director Mary Ell Icaza's message to affected Stark County voters on Issue 4.  (restructured by the SCPR for clarity and emphasis)

On November 6 our country goes to the polls to make many important decisions nationally, regionally, and locally. You may have heard that your library’s future will be among the issues you consider. As CEO and Executive Director of Stark Library, I wanted to take an opportunity to encourage you to vote and explain why Issue 4 is on your ballot.

Stark Library supports our community in so many important ways. 

• We serve more than 240,000 residents [SCPR note:  there are about 378,000 residents in Stark County]  in Stark County, circulating almost 4 million items. 
• Last year, we held more than 9,000 free programs and provided more than 220,000 computer sessions free in our ten locations. 

These programs and many more support our mission of lifelong learning for all residents of Stark County.

• More than half of Stark Library’s funding comes from our local property tax levy.
• The remaining funds come from the state of Ohio’s Public Library Fund (PLF). 
• Over the last decade, our PLF funding has declined 17%. 
• The current 1.7 mill levy, passed in 2012, expires next year. 

Issue 4 replaces the current levy with a 2.2 mill levy, a .5 increase, helping the library recoup some of the deficit created by the decline in the PLF.

In return, Stark Library will be able to sustain and enhance our offerings to the community

•  from early literacy programs to homebound and outreach services, 
• bringing the library to those who otherwise might not ever visit a library building. 

In addition, we will invest in our library facilities for much needed maintenance, updates, and improvements to allow us to best serve our community. 

Please take the time to learn more about everything on the ballot, including Issue 4. 

However you choose to vote, I encourage you to exercise your democratic right and make your voice heard on November 6.

More from Icaza on the SCDL website:

First, be sure to see/hear some prominent Stark County officials on the value to the Stark County on the linked SCDL webpage.

Continuing with Icazo:

... Issue 4 ... would 

• extend the existing levy for eight years and 
• [i]ncrease it by about $29 a year for a home valued at $100,000. ...

The additional funding will allow:

• the Library to sustain and enhance our current offerings, including books, databases, music, movies, eBooks and eMaterials, streaming content, and other new items, such as our popular Library of Things. 
• In addition, levy funding will enable us to invest in our buildings for much-needed repairs and to update our facilities to create more dynamic, flexible spaces for meetings and events. 
• Updated technology will allow us to increase free access to computers, internet, and other innovative technologies, providing communities with critical information access and bridging the digital divide.

Our Library supports our community in so many important ways. 

• For example, our SPARK Parent Partner program impacts thousands of children in Stark County, helping to make sure they’re ready for school. 
• Our bookmobile and mobile services team goes into the community and meets people where they are—providing library services to daycares, senior centers, schools, and homebound patrons—residents who may have no way to get to the library. 
• Our expert trainers work with those in need of job assistance, enabling people to improve their job skills and career path.

A key reason that the 8 year replacement levy is likely to pass is that library officials listened to the Stark County commissioners when the officials at a regular commissioners meeting on July 18, 2018 asked the commissioners (who merely do the Ohio law obligatory and place requested library issues on the ballot by resolution) to place a "continuing" issue rather than a limited in duration (recommended 8 years as with the Stark County Justice System 1/2 sales tax).

Though the commissions as a matter of Ohio law were required to place the "continuing' version on the ballot, they did in the meeting (primarily Commissioner Janet Creighton but with the concurrence of Commissioners Bill Smith and Richard Regula) and in "bully pulpit" fashion encouraged the library officials to reconsidered "continuing" to "for a term of years" on the implicit threat that the commissioners would not support the replacement levy if it was not modified to a term for years.

Library officials did reconsider and as noted above in this blog and returned to the commissioners regular weekly meeting of August 1, 2018 with a proposal that changed the duration of the levy to a term of years.

 Commissioner Janet Creighton is fully behind Issue 4 for a term of eight (8) years.

Readers who want to refresh themselves on the controversy can do so by going to the following Stark County Political Report blog (LINK) which contain chapter and verse on the differences and the resolution of those differences.