Library Finds Funds, Forces Philosophy

Community, Featured Stories

“The library is so important and the additional time and the additional services we can put there are going to make us a more literate county, which gives us a more literate government and more literate things for our people.”

At the September 27th board of commissioners meeting, Elizabeth Hunt presented the county with a check for $1362.47 on behalf of The Friends of Library. The money is to be used to pay the salaries for the library employees. Hunt said that she wasn’t going to make a speech, but said that,

“The library is so important and the additional time and the additional services we can put there are going to make us a more literate county, which gives us a more literate government and more literate things for our people.”

Hunt added that she hoped by next year when the county sorts out its budget that

“the library will be improved to a larger extent.”

The donation comes on the heels of a financial request by representatives and advocates of the library.

On September 13th, the board of commissioners opened up the Public Hearings for the proposed FY12 Budget. During this session, Library Board of Trustees Chairman Joe Webb brought his financial request to the board. Webb requested a budget increase for library services, largely to extend the hours of operation and to pay for salaries and benefits for employees. He asserted that the library has not received a budgetary increase for the last four years. Webb said that the amount he was requesting from the county for the library equaled less than $1000 a month. Responding to Webb’s request and others petitioning for an increase in library funding, Commission Chair Bill Simonds said that although he would like to increase funding for the library, other services take priority. He noted that the services that take priority over the library are the ones that help feed people and keep them warm in the winter, services such as The Department of Public Health, North Georgia Mountains Crisis Center and The Department of Family and Children’s Services.

Citizen Ed Andrews sagely spoke out during the public commentary portion of the September 27th meeting. Mr. Andrews said that the he hears people complaining about all of the big government policies in Washington and all of the over-spending by the Federal Government, yet citizens are doing the same thing in Fannin County by asking for budget increases. By requesting funding for county services, he said citizens are growing government. The implication, here, is that by doing so, citizens are doing on a local level what Washington has done and is doing on a national level, feeding the leviathan of big government.

“Do we want that?”

Andrews asked. After the comment, Chairman Simonds at first took slight offence to this, explaining how Fannin County has significantly reduced the size of the county government. Andrews told the chairman that he didn’t imply that Fannin was guilty of this charge; only that big government could be the result if the county granted all of the petitions of the services that have been requesting funding.

But, Andrews’ comment forces a few philosophical questions: First, what are the priorities for county services? Second, what role should the county government play? Expect the answers to these questions to underscore public discussions in the near future.

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