Yesterday
Richard decided he wanted to drive to Ashland to take some watches to a vendor –
though I didn’t think it necessary to make a special trip.I told him we should pray about the decision
to go – afterall the nation is experiencing untamed weather, we are still not
receiving local news and perhaps we should remain at home.
I took the closed pumps as a
sign.We had gone to four different gas
stations before finding one that still had gas.They expect they will run out today.Oh, my word!I feel like I’m
living in a Sci-Fi.It’s been raining
non-stop.It’s a wonder that we don’t
have a lake in our backyard. On the plus side our grass is very green.
Each month this year has brought up a
new set of challenges – most which
still exist.
January – Australia caught on fire
February – Chinese citizens post videos of the
effects of COVID19 – I never
imagined it would become a world wide thing
March – Several states go into a
lockdown.For Jenna the pendemic started
Friday the 13th.The 18th
shakes Utah (where we came from and family members live) starts a chain of
earthquakes and aftershocks
April – nation is short on supplies – items such as
face masks, hand sanifizer, ventilators and toilet paper.Only those working front line have jobs.People feel more exposed to risk while
working front line.People without jobs are
financially worn out.
May – Rumor of Murder Hornets.Not important enough to last more than a few
weeks. George Floyd is killed, black lives matter protests and looters. Still
going.
June – phases and political mask wearing or
not wearing. Freedom vs. safety – or is it stupidity vs. safe to be
free? Spend more money on struggling businesses in order to keep safe
July – return to school protesting, coin
shortage.Oh, no.Not coins.The toilet paper and mask shortage I could live with, but coins . . . .
So here are the theories.No one is going to the bank with rolled coins
anymore so coins are piling up in people’s homes;rumor that some businesses are enticing patrons
to bring in rolled coins to receive a free drink, slice of pizza or what have
you . . . seriously?Seems the masks and
toilet paper have reappeared –
especially masks.There is such a
variety of masks on the market now.
Before 1999 became 2000 there was
concern over the Y2K (see here) and we were advised to hang onto small bills of
cash in the case we needed to barter or shop without the benefit of
change.They had always talked about
bills.Never coins.
We keep bills in the emergency bags we
have on hand in the event we need to evacuate (due to fires or earthquakes; we
had never prepared to stay in and NOT leave the house) we don’t have
coins.Coins add weight and our bags are
heavy enough just with food.No one ever
told us to keep our charge cards on hand in the event that no one would want to
touch the money and there would be places that wouldn’t accept
cash.We saw much of this during our
trip to NY.
We probably shouldn’t have gone. We probably should have stayed home as we
should continue to do unless it’s
absolutely necessary to leave the house.
I’m not afraid
of COVID. I am not thrilled with so much
of the nation seemingly experiencing the affect of hormones that come with pms
or pregnancy though. Enough already!
I wish the coin shortage was the biggest issue our nation had to face.
As
a child I remember hearing idioms such as "a penny for your thoughts",
"too big for your breeches", and "you can't go home again".What????I thought adults were such morons.First of all, I was always certain that my thoughts were worth more than just a penny."breeches" was a term we hadn't used and so I had no idea what that was.And "you can't go home again"?Of course, you can.In my childish mind, I took the phrase literally.If I went to a neighbor's house, for instance, I was expected to come home.Even as a college student I knew that I'd be going home again.It wasn't until many decades later that I finally figured it out.
"Home" is not necessarily a residence and family.The "home" referred to is the past.It's not just time that has put the distance between us but the evolutions and economical rise and fall that have contributed to a sense of loss as well.I
think this should be a topic for my brother's blog, but as he has not
posted to his blog for over two years, I guess I will attempt to write
about it on my own.
He has posted many pictures to facebook.Mostly memorabilia from 1960's and 1970's.Even those two decades seemed to have differences in neighborhood and community.Our Midvale neighborhood was fairly new.I don't know how many houses existed on the entire street, but I think at least 30 at the top half of the street where we lived.I remember many pregnant mothers, and all stay-at-home at that.I knew of only one mother who worked outside of the home.Other
than that each of us seemed to be raised by all of the mothers on our
street as there were many children, activities and spending time with
one another.
We all went to the same neighboring newly built elementary school.Doors were left unlocked on all sides of the school and not just the front door.School shootings were unheard of.We didn't have school lockdowns. I think more field trips had been offered in the '60's than were offered in the 70's when Corey and Kayla attended. But I could be wrong.
The Salt Lake Tribune offered pages to announce births and weddings.We had a black and white TV which offered three stations: NBC, abc, and CBS.We would drive up to Grandma's house at least once a week.At that time her house was located behind the capital building.My brother and I would always have great adventures there with my cousins.We would explore the house inside and out.
Many years after my grandpa had passed and my aunt moved out on her own, the family talked grandma into moving.It really was a huge house for one person to take care of.I think even more work was required for the upkeep of the yard.She
did not move until after Corey was born, but he will never have the
same memories that I did of that house on Edgecomb Dr. It's really too
bad.I was told that Grandma had contributed to the design of the house.
I think our visits to Grandma were made more frequently when she moved to Murray.I was thrilled to learn I could ride my bike there - not that I did it often.Usually, we went by car, but I can remember taking the bus a few times also.It was the condominium in Murray that Corey and Kayla might think of as "Grandma's house".After she passed the condominium was sold.It's still a sensitive subject for a few family members.
Spending time with all of my neighbors was part of my childhood.I remember going to others' houses and they would come to ours.Our neighbors, the Birds, would take us to American Fork with them in July for the Steel Days parade and activities.Although it's been several decades since I have been, I am happy to see that this is still a community event - (here)
Jenna
has grown up in a society of many working mothers and hasn't always had
the option of spending time with neighbors the way that I did.We don't just drop by on people the way we did then.Play dates need to be scheduled.Appointments need to be made.
The school she attends in Myrtle Creek is quite different from the ones she'd attend in Salt Lake.Still, there are lock downs and precautions that didn't seem necessary when I was growing up.Oh, I'm not saying that wicked things didn't take place during the 60's and 70's, but nothing like they are now.Corey and I have had a hard time letting go of the house where we were raised.I saw a picture on facebook recently of two police cars parked in front of a house in my old neighborhood.The caption warned others that the resident had been recently burglarized.I'm sorry to read about the intrusion, but it does make it easier for me to deal with losing the house.There are many members of the neighborhood that I know and still have contact with, but even more that I do not.
So while many things (both tangible and not) have been lost, others have been gained.I, for one, am grateful that technology has made the vacuum easier to lift along with other appliances.Retrieving
some items from closet or cupboard seemed to be a chore in itself - but
then having to use them to complete the chore . . . well, I am happy I
don't have to do the same heavy lifting as my mom or her mom before her.I am grateful for having so information at my fingertips - literally, but horrified about it at the same time.Research
seems to be so much easier with sites such as Google, but often it
seems there is more personal information offered that it seems like an
invasion of privacy.For instance, I don't know the exact
location of Roland's two oldest daughters, but perhaps enough that I
could track them down if I had the finances or desire to do so.
They have moved around so often I don't know that they even have a sense of home.I wonder if they even have any memories of where they'd been and who they've met.I don't suppose it's easy to "go home again" if you've never had one.
For more idioms, you can click here
for meaning. Unfortunately, this site does not provide the origin.
Some are self-explanatory. You are encouraged to look up origins on
your own.
We
ended up NOT going to McMinnville.Air
quality has shifted.Yesterday we were
at a Very Unhealthy and McMinnville was moderate.Now we're at Moderate and McMinnville as at
an Unhealthy level worse than Roseburg - which seemed more breathable the last
time I was there.And forget
Eugene.As there is no direct line from
Myrtle Creek to McMinnville, we'd have to take I5 and through Eugene - which
may have been worse off than South Umpqua all along.
This
morning I read that I84 was/is closed due to the smoke (here).That's crazy.We are stuck . . . fires north of us (Washington and Canada) fires east
of us (Idaho) fires south of us (California) fires to our West (Oregon) Schools
have closed or are on delay due to the smoke.Jenna had school.That floors
me.I mean, yeah, the air quality is
better today than yesterday.Still can't
see the sky or mountains though (I may be seeing more trees) Our state is on FIRE! (here)
There
has been concern about the crops - particularly those that have been growing
grapes in vineyards.They wonder how the
wine will be effected if smoky grapes are used.That is just one of many crops.I
remember the air quality in Medford was not so great when our family joined others
with a pear picking project.I wondered
then how the smoke would/does effect the produce.
The
family next door gave us three buckets of fruit this weekend.We left them on the back porch and so they
have been exposed to the smoke, but I don't taste it.There are more peaches than we can eat before
they start to spoil. We decided to freeze what we can and pull it out as we
need it.Using this video to help guide
us, Roland and I decided to start on the peaches this morning.I say start as there is a lack of trays and
freezer room.So we have decided that we
will work on eight peaches per day until we have them all.We have also bagged frozen apple slices and
will continue with apples before moving on to pears.
So
there is your update for today. BTW THANK YOU to Better Homes and Gardens for that Tutorial. Very helpful!
MYRTLE CREEK — On the Myrtle Creek Library’s reopening day
Monday, Tanner Reed, 5, was enthusiastically transforming a Minions T-shirt
into a book bag that he could use to take home a pile of books about dinosaurs,
unicorns and monsters.
Tanner didn’t like to think about what would happen if the
library closed again.
“I’d feel really sad,” he said. Tanner was one of a dozen kids who turned up for the first
day, not just of the library’s summer reading program, but also of its
reopening after a three-month closure. Like the other smaller library branches
of the former Douglas County Library System, Myrtle Creek’s doors were shut
April 1. It’s the fifth to reopen, and it’s operating with an all-volunteer
staff. The kids were thrilled to have books to check out and fun
activities like creating their own book bags out of T-shirts and hearing
volunteer Karen Rivera read an unusual take on the Three Little Pigs story.
In
her version, three piggies from Myrtle Creek went on to have exciting careers
while living in different kinds of homes — an adobe house in a Colorado pueblo,
a rainbow cottage in California, and a portable teepee for a nomadic lifestyle.
The kids had other suggestions, such as an igloo or a castle.
It was a good day for Rivera, who was devastated when she
first heard the Myrtle Creek Library would be closing in the spring. On its
last day, she wiped away tears as she spoke about its loss with The
News-Review. So how was she feeling Monday? “Better.” Derrick Teig attended Monday’s summer reading program with
his children Liam, 2, and Ezmea, 4, as well as his wife Jessica Teig. Ezmea loves doing crafts and getting books. She tries to
teach her brother to read, her father said. Liam favors pop-up books. “I was pretty blown away when I heard they were going to
close it down,” Derrick Teig said. “I remember being a kid, getting my library card and how
much fun it was, feeling important,” he said. Marley Myrhe, 8, was enthusiastic about the anime graphic
novel his grandmother was checking out for him — “Maximum Ride” by James
Patterson. His grandmother Laura Hollifield said Marley enjoys reading
the novels and then drawing the characters. She was also checking out “The Lego
Adventure Book” for him. She said she enjoyed libraries herself as a kid and then
bringing her children, and now her grandchildren to them. “I don’t want that to get lost,” she said. “The library is
so important.” Hollifield said she’s “so thankful for the volunteers” that
have made it possible for the library to reopen. Behind the scenes, it wasn’t an easy job. Even the book
checkouts had to be done by hand. There’s still a concern about being able to fund raise
enough through the year to keep making liability insurance payments. Rivera said at one point, before the city agreed to allow
the library to continue in the building, there was even talk of opening in the
old laundromat building at the corner of Oak and Second. Bob Heilman, a member of the Save Our Libraries PAC that
unsuccessfully attempted to get a library district tax passed in November, said
at one point the Douglas Education Service District talked about moving in.
However, he said they’d have taken a substantial portion of the building and
weren’t offering to pay rent. Heilman said he anticipates it will take between $15,000 and
$20,000 a year to keep the library open, including $5,000 for insurance, as
well as the costs of internet, telephone and other services. Nevertheless, on Monday, morale was high. “This is great,” said summer reading program coordinator
Serena Theiss. “We had people here ready to roll when we got here.” Having the kids back after three months closed is “huge,”
she said. “It’s great to see kids back here in the library. We’ve got
people checking out books. We’ve got teenagers on the computer. We’ve got all the
ages in here right now,” she said. The kids were also scheduled to begin creating miniature
homes similar to those the three pigs in Rivera’s story built — paper tee-pees,
popsicle-stick rainbow houses and adobe homes made of clay.
Volunteers Sheila Johnson and Rindy Hart were working on
some rainbow house models Monday morning. Johnson said the library reopening is a relief. Hart said
she came to the library as a child and now she’s helping keep it open for
today’s children. “That’s just full-circle awesomeness right there,” she said.
Volunteer Jeanmarie Kollenkark sported a pig nose,
ears and
tail as part of the reopening of
the Myrtle Creek Library on Monday.
Summer Reading Program coordinator Serena Theiss,
left,
speaks with Hunter Myhre, 10, as she attaches a
reading frog to the wall Monday
at the Myrtle Creek Library.
Reporter Carisa Cegavske can be reached at
541-957-4213 or ccegavske@nrtoday.com pictures taken by Mike Henneke/The News-Review
The Myrtle Creek
Library will reopen Monday with an all-volunteer staff, and kick off its summer
reading program right away.
Like many of the
smaller branches of the former Douglas County Library System, the Myrtle Creek
Library has been closed since April 1. Sutherlin, Oakland, Riddle and Reedsport
have since reopened their libraries.
The Myrtle Creek
Library is unique in the county in that it is now managed not by the local city
council, but by the nonprofit Friends of the Myrtle Creek Library.
"We're very
excited," said Friends Treasurer Julienne DeMarsh about Monday's opening.
DeMarsh said the group
has about 80 people on a list of potential volunteers or donors, with a group
of 21 that has passed background checks and plans to volunteer through the
summer.
On Friday, DeMarsh
said they were working on getting connected to the internet and hope to have
that up and running in time for the opening.
She said it's
important to note that library patrons will need to re-register to get new library
cards.
The 17,000 books and
other items in the library's collection will be available for checkout on day
one. However, a computer catalog system isn't yet available, so books will be
checked out the old-fashioned way, with the patron's name and the item being
written down.
DeMarsh said
volunteers' enthusiasm wasn't diminished by the holiday weekend opening.
"People are still
willing to help us out, so I'm very encouraged by that," she said.
The library building belongs to the city, but it's the Friends
group that signed an intergovernmental agreement with the county to take charge
of and check out items from the collection.
One of the biggest challenges the Friends face is paying for
liability insurance. The main concern, DeMarsh said, is whether the library can
continue to raise enough funds to pay for that insurance and keep the library
running into the future.
For now, the emphasis is on the summer reading program, which
will be held Mondays from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Coordinator Serena Theiss said the activities will follow a
math, science and engineering theme adapted to fit the local library. Monday's
activity will be a Three Little Pigs theme with kids crafting three different
types of houses, a teepee, a rainbow cottage made from popsicle sticks and an
adobe house made from a pinch pot. Field trips will also be held to different
local businesses, including a visit to a water testing lab at Umpqua Research
Company.
The programs are conveniently timed to end just as the local
swimming pool opens up the street, Theiss said.
The doors will open at 10 a.m. Monday. Regular hours will be
from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays; 4 to 8 p.m.
Tuesdays and 4 to 7 p.m. Wednesdays. The library will be closed Fridays and
Sundays.
That gives us more hours/days than
when we had first moved in!We’ve been
without a library for just over three months now.Thanks to the members of the Friends of
Myrtle Creek library, we had our grand opening yesterday.Our kick off was for the summer reading
program “Build a Better World”
Children were told to choose a tee
shirt which we would turn into a bag so they had a container to put prizes and
books in.I read the story of “The Three
Little Pigs” but my three pigs started out life living in Myrtle Creek and each
left the state to live in three particular kinds of houses: adobe, stick or
tepee.We then allowed the children to
pick which house they would like to build and now have them in the display case
at the library.
The grand opening was a huge
success.It is the busiest I have ever
seen the library since we moved here just over two years ago,
Carissa had come to cover the
story.She remembered having had
interviewed me before.She didn’t
remember my name, but she remembered that I had been sad.That’s quite impressive from three months
back and all the libraries she has covered ever since.
I am so grateful for having the
opportunity of being a part of this historical moment.
Riddle
is moving forward with a plan to reopen its library and even check out books.
The
smaller branches that were once part of the Douglas County Library System shut
down April 1, victims of the financial crisis faced by county government. While
the county’s Library Futures Task Force continues to search for a long-term
solution, many cities have come to the conclusion their best bet, at least for
now, is to take charge of their own libraries.
Previously,
libraries had been told by the county they could reopen, but only as reading
rooms. Under that model, county-owned books would remain with each branch, but
would have to be read on site and couldn’t be checked out. The county would no
longer provide a computer catalog.
But
Riddle began looking into a way around that. It’s been investigating smaller
computer catalog services it could contract with on its own, and it sought an
intergovernmental agreement with the county that would allow it to provide its
own catalog and resume checking out books.
Monday,
the Douglas County Board of Commissioners approved Riddle’s proposal.
Rita
Radford, director of library services for the Riddle City Library, said Monday
she anticipates Riddle will become a model for other cities that want to reopen
their libraries but aren’t satisfied with the reading room approach.
Radford
said Riddle will be able to use the county’s computers, scrubbed of the
county’s software, and acquire catalog software of its own. The city, which
owns the library building, will provide internet and Wi-Fi service.
Radford
said most of the other library branches have expressed interest in following
suit. Riddle is forging ahead with the approval of its city council, which is
eager to have the library reopen.
Riddle’s
reopening is planned for 3 p.m. June 6, and a full slate of summer programs for
kids is in the works. It includes a gardening program with Master Gardeners,
story telling, music, a Peter and the Wolf musical presentation, a puppet show
called “Dogs to the Rescue,” and a rock painting “extravaganza.” Family events
will include a pre-solar-eclipse party and a professional magic show.
“It’s
going to be a lot of fun,” Radford said.
The
library has a list of about 40 volunteers, who will keep the library open five
hours each Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Radford
is a volunteer herself, though she was formerly a paid library assistant.
“It’s
a passion for me. I just love the library and I want to see it continue and be
a help to the community,” she said.
Radford
said she’s very thankful Riddle received the go ahead to work toward checking
out books.
“The
reading room is a cute little idea, but it doesn’t serve the public very well,”
she said. “Very, very few people have the time to sit down and read at the
library. Most of them would rather go home and read in their pajamas.”
Three
libraries — Reedsport, Oakland and Sutherlin — have reopened already, and
several more plan to reopen this summer. The Reedsport branch, now called the
Reedsport Public Library, has also requested an agreement with the county that
would allow it to check out books. At this time, though, it can’t afford the
cost of a cataloging system, according to City Manager Jonathan Wright. Both
Oakland and Sutherlin have begun local book collections so that some books can
be checked out.
The
Roseburg branch remains open until the end of the month.
Unwilling
to see their libraries die, community members and city leaders in those towns
were ready to reopen virtually the day their libraries closed down. They had
dozens of volunteers signed up to staff their libraries. In Sutherlin, for
example, where the library shutdown lasted a single day, a team of 50
volunteers has signed up to keep the library open as many hours as before
closure. While they aren’t checking out the county-owned books, they’ve
collected several hundred of their own that they are checking out. Reedsport
plans to put its own regional district up for a vote this November. Riddle,
which plans a June reopening, and Reedsport are working on obtaining catalog
systems so they can check out the county-owned books at their branches. These
cities have become examples that others, including Roseburg, should seriously
consider following.
Libraries
in some communities remain closed, awaiting some action from the county. It’s
their patrons who have suffered from that miscalculation, and if Roseburg
doesn’t move very quickly, their library patrons will suffer as well. A
community without a library is a poorer, and ultimately a dumber one. Roseburg
owes it to its citizens to give them what they voted for — a library whose
doors remain open. We hope to see a solid plan for how to do that emerge as
soon as possible.
Sutherlin,
Oakland and Reedsport have been more proactive. They’ve opened their libraries
again as reading rooms, by using all-volunteer staffing, and Riddle this week
gained permission from the county to pursue obtaining its own cataloging system
so it could check out books once it reopens in June.
Sutherlin,
Oakland and Reedsport libraries have already reopened, with intergovernmental
agreements (IGAs) signed with the county. The IGAs are necessary because while
all the cities outside Roseburg own their library buildings, the county owns
the books. Sutherlin is open the same hours as before the branch closures, with
volunteer staffing, while Oakland is open on Fridays. Reedsport has even
gathered enough money to keep a paid librarian, at least for the next three
months.
Yoncalla
has signed an IGA to reopen as a “reading room plus,” as has Riddle. The “plus”
allows these libraries to check out books if they acquire their own catalog
systems. Riddle plans to reopen at 3 p.m. June 6. Glendale is close to getting
an IGA signed. It plans to reopen in the summer, and have a bookworm mascot,
and a summer reading program. It’s short on volunteers and money, but plans to
publicize its grand opening with a poster campaign and a Fourth of July parade
float. Myrtle Creek has an active group of 50 volunteers and has formed a
nonprofit to raise funds. It hopes to have the library reopened by July 1.
Winston
and Canyonville do not yet have plans to reopen their libraries. Winston
leaders are concerned about a shortage of volunteers.
Drain
has scheduled two community meetings at 7 p.m. May 25 and 2 p.m. June 3 at the
Drain Civic Center, 205 West A Ave. to determine what residents want to do
about the library. The city has had offers of financial donations, but is short
on volunteers.
Riddle had their grand-opening and library kick off the day that
Jeanie passed away. Jenna and I had gone to the library on the first as
she had a dentist appointment and we were already in the area anyway. She
signed up for the summer reading program though she is already doing one
through school and will be doing one through Myrtle Creek.I was told I could sign up for a library card
but that it would cost eight dollars (as we don’t reside in Riddle) We’d like
to incorporate Myrtle Creek, Canyonville and Riddle to operate together and
thought I would weigh it out.
Roland told me to go ahead and get a card so that I could check
out some audio books to listen to on the road.I wish he had gone to pick them out himself.He always ends up making an audio book
purchase as I don’t do well with selection – not that there was much to choose
from.Mostly Nora Roberts collection
which I just didn’t think he’d be interested in.
Myrtle Creek's summer kick off does not start until July
3. At this point we don't even know where that will be as the city has
not made a commitment for location. But I will save that for another post.Oh, we’re not done.There is and will be more.
"As a result of
declining timber receipt and dwindling reserve funds the Board is tasked with
making very difficult decisions to ensure that basic public safety needs and
other essential services for the community are met." stated County
Commissioner Chris Boice.
Those
are the last words found on the Douglas County Library home page.The web page may appear to offer more options, but they are no longer linked to
anything.It's a dead page.
This
was the caption on November 30, 2016 Charlotte Herbert wrote the following
letter to the News Review Editor:
Stop the talk, vote for the library
" How can anyone think library
supporters have not thoroughly explored ALL funding solutions? Library staff
and supporters have been thinking about alternative funding for 20 years. Ever
since 1996, when repeated budget cuts made our libraries fall below minimum
standards.
"Can we use volunteers?
Josephine County now funds and operates its four branches by relying on many
volunteers. This is so unworkable that both staff and volunteers are now
planning a May 2017 ballot measure like ours. Can cities pay more? Not one city
has stepped forward in the past five years to help Douglas County run the
library. Can't donors step in? We have donors, but they do not fund operations,
just "extras," like new books.
"The Save Our Libraries
Committee has boxes of research on libraries and how to fund them. They've done
countless interviews. They've held countless public meetings . . ."
To add to that concern, this was
posted on November 19, 2016: "Once upon a time, we were so dedicated to improving our community
that we as a county banded together to form a single library system. It was
well funded and fully staffed by professional librarians. The branches were
open often enough that people could visit them regularly. And a beautiful new
library was built to house the Roseburg branch, in part thanks to generous
donations from the Ford family.
"It
was emblematic of a time when we looked forward, planned for the future,
invested in our kids, valued learning. "It’s
a good story, yes? But it may turn out to have a very unhappy ending. The
voters’ rejection of a library district this month, we may well be facing the
demise of the Douglas County Library System. "Since
you are reading this editorial right now, we assume you are generally in favor
of literacy."
On November 30, 2016 Carisa Cegavske, Senior Staff Writer
for The News Review wrote:
"There were
tears from a Glide teacher who said she “just can’t believe people failed” a
library district measure earlier this month, and cheers for the father of a
home-schooled girl who raised money for the library through a bake sale."
It's not that voters were opposed to keeping libraries opened so much as it
was against paying even more in taxes.Evidently the city of Sutherlin had already opted out before the bill
was proposed.Property taxes were/are
too high before the bill. There was
talk about Reedsport possibly joining forces with Coos County, which seemed to
make sense in my mind.It always
appeared to be disjointed whenever I looked at the map
It
actually takes less time for us to get to Coos Bay than to Reedsport - not that
I've ever been to Reedsport.I was told
that it is over a two hour drive.
“The Reedsport
library is one of the most important places in Reedsport.” [says Reedport's librarian
Sue Cousineau]
Cousineau is also optimistic.
“The Reedsport library will be here one way or another because the people in
this area care so much about their library.”
Cousineau will stay on through April to help volunteers set up their reading
room. Then, after 13 years running the Reedsport Library, she’ll be out of a
job.
I provided a link
for this next article in this post
MYRTLE CREEK — The Myrtle Creek branch of the Douglas County
Library System closed its doors Thursday.
In its final hours, library patrons read and talked, used the
computers and collected books, as a documentary film crew from San Francisco’s
Serendipity Films moved around them, gathering stories for a film on the
history of the American public library and the challenges those libraries face
today.
And the challenges in Myrtle Creek and Douglas County are very,
very real. The county government, strapped for cash, announced it would be
unable to fund the county libraries through the end of the year. A November
ballot measure that would have created a library district tax to keep the
libraries opened was rejected by voters. Subsequently, the closure dates were
announced — April 1 for the 10 rural branches and May 31 for the main branch in
Roseburg. A task force has been convened to seek a long-term funding solution.
Meanwhile, library boards, city councilors and a host of book-loving
volunteers are scrambling to fill the breach in Myrtle Creek and other cities
around the county.
There’s been a library in Myrtle Creek in some form for 105 years,
and quite a few town residents say they have no intention of giving it up.
Already, 35 volunteers have signed up to work shifts at the library and they
plan to reopen it on July 1.
On Thursday, the prevailing mood at the library was sadness.
Karen Rivera, mother of 12-year-old Jaime Rivera, wiped away tears
as she talked about what the loss meant to her and her daughter. It was hard
enough adjusting to a small library open only part-time after they moved here
from Salt Lake City a couple years ago. She and Jaime were reading the book
“Zillah and Me” together Thursday. They’ve been reading together since Jaime
was born.
“I’m really bummed,” Karen Rivera said. “The library offered a way
for us to get together, to feed our minds. We’ve always been a poor family, and
being able to go to the library programs has given our family something to do for
free.”
“Being able to borrow books from the library to gain information,
that was awesome,” Jaime said. “Now this is going to be ripped away from us,
and it sucks.”
This wasn’t Marilyn Brouillard’s first rodeo, though. Brouillard,
longtime volunteer and incidentally the mayor’s wife, lived in Redding,
California, almost 30 years ago when the Shasta County Library System closed
down.
Back then, her son checked out a collection of books beginning
with the words “The Last.” On Thursday, Brouillard copied his example.
She checked out 10 books with titles like “The Last Star,” “The
Last Sin Eater,” “The Last Battle,” and “The Last Apocalypse.”
She doesn’t know if she’ll get to read them all before the final
book return date of April 25.
“I just never thought I’d go through this a second time,” she
said.
She said she’s impressed, though, by the number of people who have
signed up to volunteer.
Myrtle Creek Librarian Hannah Merrill is out of a job, but said
she tried her best to make the library’s last day a happy one for the people
who love it. She said she plans to return to school to get an English degree,
and would like to become a fiction editor.
“I’ve always had a love for books,” she said.
Connie Earp wondered where the children would go. The library is a
source of knowledge for them, she said, and she loves watching their little
faces light up during story time.
To have that disappear, she said, “it’s just the saddest thing.”
Five-year-old Jameson Bury clutched a book about dinosaurs as his
mother wondered what they’d do until the library reopened with an all-volunteer
staff in July. His mother said she visits the library every week with Jameson
and his little brother.
“I can’t read library books for story time any more,” Jameson
said. Asked if that made him feel sad, he nodded.
“I’m really depressed about it,” Melissa Bury said. “They’ve grown
up with this library. It’s someplace we really love to come.”
Carissa had already left when the Myrtle Creek Library board members held their final meeting (see here) On April 30, 2017 News Review gave us this story headline:
WINCHESTER
— Umpqua Community College is inviting the public to visit its library. As
Douglas County commissioners move forward with plans to close the county’s sole
remaining library in Roseburg, UCC wants the community to know its library is
still an option for people who love books.
“We
just want the public to know they still have a place to go and check out
books,” McGeehon said.
The
library is open from 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and 7:30 a.m.
to 5 p.m. on Fridays. The library is not open on weekends. For more
information, call 541-440-4640. HBO put out this news segment video:
Some cities have been working at creating a library or at
least offering a reading room strictly staffed by volunteers.The city of Riddle has continued to fund
their building.As Jenna had a dentist
appointment in Riddle about a week before we went out of town, we stopped by and she signed up for their
summer reading program - even though Myrtle Creek will also be sponsoring a
reading program in addition to Coffenberry Middle School.
