Cornelius Branch Library (David Boraks / DavidsonNews.net)

By CHRISTINA RITCHIE ROGERS and DAVID BORAKS
DavidsonNews.net

The Future of the Library Task force next week will recommend to the Library Board and the County Commission increasing hours and services at regional libraries. The task force also is asking the county for a boost in funding that could close a gap that otherwise threatens closings at a half-dozen branch libraries, including Davidson and Cornelius.

The task force has been meeting since last October, and at times it has not been clear if the 17-member panel could find a way to keep open small town and neighborhood branches. But in the past couple of weeks, the members have reached a consensus on what it would take to keep all the branches open.

Hoping to avoid closings, the task force will recommend that the county shift library budgeting to a per-capita calculation, and set funding at a level in line with similar cities nationwide. That could add about $2 million to the budget, and keep the six threatened branches open.

“I think the outlook is hopeful,” said Davidson Mayor John Woods, who has been a regular at task force meetings. “There is a plan in place. The task force has done a really good job of airing out the various issues and challenges.”

He said he thinks the task force recognizes “that we’re in a temporary period” where the weak economy has hurt county revenues and forced cuts. “They talked long and hard about how damaging it would be if any library closed and how hard, if not impossible, it would be to reopen it,” Mayor Woods said.

In its final meeting Tuesday night, the task force also bolstered its recommendation to preserve three branch libraries in low-income neighborhoods that might otherwise have been targeted for closure because their circulation is lower than that at some other branches.

If the library board and county commission accept the two recommendations – for increased regional library staff hours and a per-capita funding approach – no branch libraries would have to close, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library Communications Director Cordelia Anderson said. If funding does not come through, the system could see as many as six branches close, including Cornelius, Davidson, Matthews, Hickory Grove, Plaza Midwood and Myers Park, and the available funding put towards operations at the regional libraries.

Cornelius Mayor Jeff Tarte called the Task Force’s recommendations to strengthen regional libraries and focus on preserving the three low-income neighborhood branches “inherently unfair.”

“The task force needs to take heed of all the citizens in the county,” Mayor Tarte said. He thinks task force members’ perception of the Cornelius branch is inaccurate.

“They think it’s sitting beside the Peninsula Country Club,” he said. But, he pointed out, the branch is located near Smithville, one of the oldest neighborhoods in the town that also happens to have a large African-American population, Meridian Street, which has a largely Hispanic population, the Twin Oaks senior center and the public elementary school.

“My request for the county board is that before they close any facilities, go visit them, see the neighborhoods,” Mayor Tarte said. “If they can visit our library and say that’s not a fragile neighborhood that needs its library, more power to them.”

Davidson Mayor Woods said that as the task force report goes to the county commission, “It becomes incumbent on all of us now to contact our county commissioners to lobby on our behalf, and make sure this library system is not lost or further reduced, throughout Mecklenburg County.”

In Cornelius, Mayor Tarte said he’ll send a “call to action” to his newsletter subscribers this week asking Cornelius residents to take contact officials on the County Commission in defense of their library.

While citizens can take action now, the Cornelius Town Board’s hands are tied until they know the sort of funding they will get from the county, Mayor Tarte said.

“The moment the county library board makes a decision that chances the way we operate, it goes on the (Town Board) agenda,” he said.

It’s too early to start planning for either case now, he said, because the board would be dealing in hypotheticals. “The question will be what actions do we take when we don’t have a library,” he said.

The task force presents its final report and recommendations to the Library Board, County Commission, and other stakeholders at a special meeting on Monday, March 21, at 6 p.m. in room 267 at the Government Center, 600 E. Fourth St., Charlotte. The meeting is open to the public.

RELATED COVERAGE

March 2, 2011, “$2M needed to keep six library branches from closing”

Feb. 28, 2011, “Panel eyes regional library system, but it’s not unanimous”

See all our previous coverage of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library funding crisis, on our sister site, DavidsonNews.net, CLICK HERE

Future of the Library Task Force website, with agendas and documents.