Little River County voters turn their backs on books

Little River County, Ark., Judge Mike Cranford didn't have to read the hand-writing on the library walls to know the voters don't want a millage increase to pay for improvements and operations of the three county-owned libraries.

The vote was defeated with 3,098 voting against the library tax and 1,998 in favor of the tax.

"The library tax was defeated two-to-one," said Cranford regarding the Nov. 8 general election.

The county libraries, located in Ashdown, Foreman and Winthrop, have been operating on a millage which generates about $75,000 a year. If additional money was needed for operations such as utilities or repairs to the buildings, the Little River County Quorum Court would transfer general funds to the library to pay the bills.

"The Quorum Court wanted the libraries to operate as self-sustaining and not use the general fund monies," Cranford said.

Increasing the tax rate to one mill would create $250,000 annually.

"Unfortunately the voters saw fit to fail the measure. We will continue to operate the libraries at half speed and half throttle," Cranford said.

The library funds a couple of years ago were reduced. Each librarian works 20 hours a week instead of the previous 40 hours a week. The librarians also cut maintenance expenses and utilities by reducing the hours.

After the reduction in operating hours, Cranford said library patrons "pushed back and said they wanted the libraries to go back to 40 hours a week."

"The libraries are not just books on a shelf. They have a lot of learning materials," Cranford said.

"About 90 percent of the voters don't care and they're apathetic while about 10 percent use the library," he said.

"Libraries are pieces of the puzzles to improve the quality of life in a community. We will continue to try to operate on a half of a piece of the puzzle," Cranford said.

He expects an increase in repairs and utility operations for the three libraries because each library building is about 50 years old.

"We're having to make more building repairs," he said.

"We wanted to go back to operating full-time at 40 hours a week and provide more library programs for children.

The Quorum Court may take the proposal back to voters in the next election in 2018.

The failure of the library vote was labeled ironic in the social media because Little River County voters approved selling beer and wine in the county and supported using marijuana for medical purposes but rejected additional funding for the three libraries.

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