Library board member eases fears of fans of Montesano facility

The Timberland Regional Library Capital Facilities Proposal released last week to the public recommends closing the Montesano branch.

Corby Varness, Grays Harbor County representative on the TRL Board of Trustees, has a message for fans of the library: “(The proposal)is not a plan. And it won’t be a plan.”

She has been busy putting out fires created by the release of this proposal.

“I have been very distressed that a very preliminary draft proposal of ideas has been presented in our communities and understandably has been perceived in our communities as a plan,” she said during an interview.

The Board of Trustees, Varness said, will set an emergency meeting. She hoped for one this week as well as a meeting of the board’s Facilities Committee, which she chairs. The Facilities Committee is tasked with developing a capital facilities plan. The committee normally develops a plan by gathering input from communities, library patrons, communities and from other TRL committees. The proposal goes before the board, which can approve it or make recommendations and send it back to the Facilities Committee. “I have had circumstances where the board kicks it back to the Facilities Committee and more work is done, then it goes back to the board than back to the committee … . It’s a deliberative process,” she said. “It has not been followed in this case.”

Monday afternoon the library announced that the Facilities Committee will meet Wednesday, from 5-6 p.m. at the Administrative Service Center, located at 415 Tumwater Blvd. S.W. in Tumwater. While this meeting will not include a public comment period, it is open to the public.

During last week’s TRL board meeting in Ilwaco, the board discussed the release of the proposal with the executive director, Cheryl Heywood.

Varness says that if the document, as is, comes before the board for the vote, she would vote against it.

“This is a document that was prepared by staff at the administration level,” she said. “It was prepared without any input from the Facilities Committee and without any input from the board. It was made public as such, and I don’t believe that should have been.”

The library system is constantly examining ways to improve. And its budget is facing annual deficits in the near future.

“We need to look as a library at our expenditures,” Varness said. “We are running a very tight ship financially. We are anticipating shortfalls. We’re not so bad for the coming year. But it’s getting worse, it’s about a $700,000 shortfall coming up in succeeding years. We need to address that.”

In addition to the budget, Varness would like to see changes to the services it offers.

”We need to address ways for our libraries to become more outfacing. We don’t want to be sitting in a building with the doors shut waiting for people to come in,” she said. “We need to be getting out into our communities and into nursing homes and day care facilities and into communities. I believe that’s the library of the future. How we can to that with our existing buildings and our existing staff is the question. But I don’t believe that it’s necessary to close libraries, just become more outfacing.”

Currently, the board is facing challenges with its branch in South Bend.

“The only reason that has been discussed is because of significant issues with the structure,” Varness said. “We’ve discussed it with the city of South Bend. We’re waiting on a report from (the state Department of Labor and Industries). It is currently closed because of potential issues with building and health and safety issues. That’s the only reason anyone should be talking about closing a branch at this point in this district.”

After the release of the proposal, it didn’t take long for people in Montesano to get to work trying to save their library.

Mayor Vini Samuel sent a letter to the board expressing her dismay.

“The library is critical to our sense of identity and a cornerstone of the services expected of this town,” Samuel wrote. “… this plan will reduce usage of the system which hurts not only TRL but also my citizens. It denies them ownership and local pride in ‘their library.’ ”

Cathy Carter, president of the Friends of the Montesano Library group, said signs were being made. As a business woman she understands that changes will be required.

“I understand from a business perspective that something has to be done,” she said. “We would be happy to work with the board to implement changes, short of shutting down the library.”

But her group isn’t giving up without a fight.

“You can be sure that the friends will take an active role to do whatever we have to do to save the library,” she said.