Chatter and giggles spill from a tiny yellow library in a rural town of about 300 people, where kids and adults are busy turning milk jugs into mini greenhouses.
But moments like this could be at risk.
Libraries of Stevens County is proposing a $1.1 million levy on the April 28 ballot to maintain services and hours across all seven branches. Library Director Amanda Six said that without that increase, officials will have to cut $250,000 from the library budget, which would result in further cuts to service.
The Hunters Public Library, for example, is already open just twice a week for only a handful of hours. If the levy doesn’t pass, those hours could be reduced even further, Six said.
“We would have to reduce the number of after-school programs, early literacy programs, tech programs,” Six said. “We would have to cut materials, like the things we order and buy for the library for patrons to use, like downloadable e-books, regular books, all those things.”
Voters approved the last levy 28 years ago. The new operations levy would tax property owners at a rate of 44 cents per $1,000 in assessed property value for 10 years, an increase of 17 cents from the current rate. In order to pass, the levy requires only a simple majority of votes.
The last time the library district proposed a levy was 12 years ago, but it failed by 600 votes, about 5% of the ballots cast.
“Since 2011, we’ve reduced 100 hours of open hour service per week countywide, if you add up all the hours that we’ve already cut,” Six said.
According to data provided by the library district, about 20,720 people attended programs across the seven libraries, including after-school programs, beekeeping sessions and family tax help. The data also reports more than 24,500 unique users used the library’s Wi-Fi, which is nearly half of the county’s population.
Six emphasized close to 60% of residents in Stevens County don’t have access to broadband.
“It’s a real lifeline for families,” she said.
Ella Kerner, branch lead for the Hunters and Colville libraries, said she has seen this personally over the past five years.
“A lot of folks come in; they just need a printer because, you know, court documents, passport applications, all of that kind of life business,” Kerner said. “You need internet access, a computer and a printer, and not everyone has that.”
She highlighted a recent moment where a woman was going to the Hunters library, spending at least 20 hours using their computers looking for jobs and taking online certification classes.
Then one day, the woman came back to tell Kerner she had been hired.
“Having that library service here available for her made all the difference,” she said.
Kiri Baunach and her kids are also some faces Kerner sees regularly.
Baunach, who attended the milk jug mini greenhouses event, said they live about 5 miles from the library and often stop by for books, movies and activities to get the kids out of the house.
She also said she homeschools her children, and the library is one of the main places she goes for curriculum and materials.
“It’s so nice, because there’s not a whole lot around here,” Baunach said.
With less than a month until the levy vote, Six said she understands many Stevens County residents are on fixed incomes and facing financial strain. Still, data from the past year shows a clear need to maintain services and hours across the district, she said.
“I think there’s a lot of people who will say something like, ‘Do people use libraries anymore?’ And I can tell you from some of those stats, they sure do,” Six said.
