Library referenda nears, YouTube video released
By Nelson Daily Staff
By Timothy Schafer, The Nelson Daily
On Oct. 16 residents of regional district areas E, F and southern H will vote on whether they want to contribute to the Nelson Municipal Library through local taxation.
Three separate referenda will be held with each electoral area making its own decision.
A ‘Yes’ vote will mean rural residents would no longer have to purchase a membership for the library and they would gain equal access, in addition to a satellite service being set up in the Slocan Valley and up Kootenay Lake.
The ‘Yes’ vote also means improved hours and service at the library, an expanded collection for borrowing, shut-in service for people who cannot leave their homes, more services through the schools, and rural representation on the library board of trustees.
Saying ‘No’ to the Oct. 16 Nelson Municipal Library referenda would mean a doubling in the cost of rural memberships to $120 per year for rural areas, while library services would suffer.
The library misses out on over $60,000 in money from the province because they are paid per capita — a figure that presently cannot include the rural population it serves.
The cost of the new tax assessment for rural library service works out to $10.30 per $100,000 of property assessment, the second lowest library tax assessment in the Kootenay region.
With membership fees ($65 per year) accounting for two per cent of the library’s budget, and up to 30 per cent of the users coming in from rural areas, the delivery of the service is proving unsustainable.
On Oct. 16 residents in the three areas will vote on whether they want to contribute to the library through local taxation. Three separate referenda will be held with each electoral area making its own decision.
This means residents in each area that pass its referendum will realize universal access to library services. The locations of where to vote have been advertised and are posted on http://rdck.bc.ca/publicinfo/news.html.
