[Libs-Or] Wallowa Library Closure

[OLA President]

Hello Oregon Library Community,
I'm attaching a statement about what we know regarding the closure of the
Wallowa County Library, but attachments can be a bit unpredictable, so I'm
pasting the text below.
We will let you know more as we find out, and we are hoping to forward a
petition to keep the library open for you to sign in the very near future.
Thank you for your advocacy and support of Oregon Libraries,
Elsa Loftis

April 26, 2017

To the members of the Oregon Library Association,

On April 25, 2017, the Legislative Committee of the Oregon Library
Association was informed that the county library in Wallowa County is due
to be closed. For those who are not familiar with it, Wallowa County is
located in the northeastern corner of Oregon, with a population of roughly
7,000. The county public library operates two branches in the towns of Troy
and Imnaha, and the library website states that they circulate 3,300
average each year, with 2,200 people accessing its services.   The library
has been in existence since 1964, when it was created by a vote of the
people. It maintains several outreach programs, including “Training
Wheels”, “Leap into Literacy”, and the “Up & Away Afterschool Programs”. If
you would like to read more about the library and its services, you can
access their website here:
http://co.wallowa.or.us/community_services/library/index.html

The cities in Wallowa County are served by city libraries in Joseph,
Enterprise, and Wallowa, and this closure will not affect these libraries.
The services that the county library provides, however, are unique and very
important to the people living in the smaller communities. The county is
more than 3,000 square miles, and many families will be negatively impacted
by this closure.

At this time, we are trying to find out more information about what
transpired to get to this closure decision. From what we understand, the
Budget Committee made a recommendation to the County Commissioners, and
this decision was announced in the last day or two. There has not yet been
a public hearing, as required by law, so we hope that the public will have
a chance to comment. Representatives from OLA will be monitoring the
situation and hope to attend a public hearing. I will let you know what I
can as the situation unfolds, and we are hopeful that public involvement
and comment will help bring this to a better resolution, but as we
understand it now, the two branch libraries of Wallowa County are being
closed as of June 30, 2017.

Thank you,

[image: Screen Shot 2016-11-17 at 10.01.44 AM.png]

Elsa Loftis

President, Oregon Library Association


-- 
Elsa Loftis
OLA President 2016-17



*I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.-Jorge Luis
Borges*
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