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It's official

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Contributed by: James LaRue on 8/22/2008

On August 21, 2008, the Library Board of Trustees adopted a resolution to place a mill levy increase question on the November ballot. That ballot will ask for voter approval for 1 (one) mill. 0.4 mills will be retired when the building projects are paid for -- which is estimated to take about 20 years. One mill is $7.96 per year on each $100,000 of home value.

What are the projects? A neighborhood library in Castle Pines (in leased space), a new Parker Library (on donated land), and a new Lone Tree Library (also on donated land). They would open in 2009, 2011, and 2012, respectively. Castle Rock and Highlands Ranch would also see some building improvements as funds are available, but not later than 2012.

The proposal is different from last year's in three ways.

* It's cheaper. Our public feedback revealed a lot of concern about the economy. We heard you. Despite rising construction costs, we lowered the anticipated expense by scaling back the projects, and phasing in their construction. The library has always taken an aggressively conservative approach to public expenditures. We still do.

* Part of the increase sunsets. When the construction is paid off, 40% of the new mill goes away. The rest will be used to operate the expanded facilities.

* It's urgent. Last year, our planning was far enough out that no big changes were immediately necessary if we failed to address district demand. That's changed. For one thing, the promise of donated land in Lone Tree -- a significant savings -- will be withdrawn if the voters turn down our proposal again.

For another, the inequities of service across the county are becoming more pronounced.

In the 12 years since our last tax increase, the county has not grown evenly. Today, Parker has a library half the size of the library in Castle Rock, but serves a population almost twice as large. Castle Pines has no library at all. Lone Tree has quite a beautiful building, but soon will serve an area far beyond its capacity.

Trustees represent the entire county. If the voters want us to live within our existing revenues, then we'll have to redistribute the resources more fairly, diminishing some services across the county to invest in necessary infrastructure. That's painful and disruptive. It is also unnecessary -- I hope.

The increased cost for most households would be about the cost of one hardback book per year. Is it really necessary to break the library system when just one book per family would head off the problem? (Especially when more books is precisely what we're after.)

A copy of the Board resolution, and the complex ballot language (don't blame us -- there's not a lot of leeway in how we have to ask for things) can be found at DouglasCountyLibraries.org.

Many thanks to all of you who took the time to give encouragement, criticism, and thoughtful input to the Board's decision. The Trustees are an extraordinarily diligent group of people, and invested many hours of their volunteer time to address community needs. They care.

Ultimately, the library isn't mine. It isn't the staff's. It isn't even the Board's.

It's yours. You have a choice about its future, and its significance to your life.

Jamie LaRue is the Director at Douglas County Libraries. His views are his own.

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CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

James LaRue

Castle Rock , CO

James LaRue has posted 279 stories and 0 comments since joining on 7/27/2007. James LaRue 's average story rating is 4.98.

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