Citizen support needed to turn page at CJ library
From our weekly issue dated March 04, 2009
The Cave Junction branch of the Josephine County Library may reopen some day, but it’s not going to happen without a whole lot of Illinois Valley support.
That was the overall message given to approximately 50 Cave Junction residents Tuesday evening, Feb. 24, when Josephine Community Libraries (JCLI) Inc. met at the Josephine County Bldg. in Downtown Cave Junction.
Doug Walker, a member of the JCLI Board of Directors, told the audience that the group is here to “enlist” them in the efforts to reopen the facility. It has been closed since May 2007 because of the county ending its financial support.
Library Director Russell Long said that the Grants Pass branch, which reopened in December, recorded 1,300 volunteer hours and 14,000 items checked out in January.
Long said that the estimated cost of one year’s worth of operations at the Cave Junction branch is $42,608. That would fund 15 hours of staff time per week and 12 hours when the library would be open to the public.
Opening the Williams branch for nine hours a week for a year would cost around $21,000, and so would operating the Wolf Creek branch. That branch now is open as a reading library for a few hours a week in order to satisfy a grant requirement.
Walker said that small group discussions during the Feb. 24 meeting will help JCLI’s board determine the needs of the community.
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“It gives us a fairly good idea of what the people there are expecting and what they want out of their library,” Walker said. The Cave Junction branch will require much more initial effort to reopen, he stated, and added:
“It’s higher maintenance and it’s an older building. It’s going to have more hours, more computers and more of a phone system. It’s a larger facility, which means the costs are greater.”
However, Walker said that Illinois Valley residents need to take the lead in building a financial and volunteer base for the CJ library.
“The people of Cave Junction need to organize themselves and begin to create fund-raisers and awareness for the opening of their branch,” Walker said.
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