KATALINA VILLARREAL: Sunsetting next year is the Garfield County library 1-mill property tax levy. The 2006 mill levy has contributed around $3 million dollars in funds for libraries in Garfield County. The soon to be voted on 6B ballot measure aims to extend the mill levy indefinitely.
VILLARREAL: So basically, there would be no tax increase. It's just asking the public to reinstate that.
JOCELYN DURRANCE: Correct. Because in 2006, the public voted for that mill levy, which resulted in the building of six wonderful libraries throughout Garfield County, from Carbondale to Parachute.
VILLARREAL: That was Jocelyn Durrance from the citizen advocacy group Maintain Our Garfield County Libraries. Durrance worked as a librarian for 30 years, and after retiring 11 years ago, she became a trustee for the Garfield County Public Library District.
DURRANCE: And that was a five-year term, and when I was up for reappointment, I was not reappointed. And so I thought, "You know what? Something's not right here because I have a lot of experience, and why is it that I'm not being reappointed?" So I joined a group called Protect Our Garco Libraries, also known as POGL, and our mission was to let the residents of Garfield County know what was going on within the library district and the relationship with the Board of County Commissioners.
VILLARREAL: The mill levy is $1 in property tax for every $1,000 of a property’s assessed value. For a $500,000 home valuation, homeowners would pay approximately $38 annually. Some of the six libraries that were built with the aid of the mill levy are nearly 15 years old. Durrance noted that if 6B is voted for, it would help maintain the library buildings and improve their current conditions. There are also digital expenses such as E-libraries, audiobooks, and streaming services.
VILLARREAL: Anything else that the libraries are able to do with this funding?
DURRANCE: Programming. Programming is huge. Bilingual story hours. Our Spanish collection -- maintaining the Spanish collection, an awful lot of money was spent to bring the level of the collection up to represent the number of Hispanics we have in our communities. So all of that is where the money would go.
VILLARREAL: Is there anything you would like to say about 6B for voters to be thinking about?
DURRANCE: You know, there is. The mission of a public library is to serve the community. The public library should represent all members of the community. So a public library is for everybody. As Jamie LaRue has said, "If you walk into a public library and you don't see anything that you object to, then something's wrong." So there is something for everybody. Public libraries are free. And public libraries are a force within the community; they pull people together. It's a fabulous library district.
