Posted December 3, 2004.

Salinas Friends to Urge Another Tax Attempt

The Friends of the Salinas (Calif.) Public Library have pledged to ask the city council for another attempt to raise a special ballot to raise enough money to sustain library services, the Salinas Californian reported November 22. Two previous ballot-measure failures have ensured that the city’s three library branches will close sometime before July 1.

Friends President Lynne Steele said at a November 20 meeting that she was committed to “work to open them and open them as soon as possible.” Lauren Cercone, book sale coordinator for the Friends group, told the Californian that deciding to keep only one library open would divide the community when residents need to unite to save them all.

The Salinas city council would have to declare an emergency to put tax measures back on the ballot in time for the next elections in March, because state law forbids putting the same measure up for vote in less than one year without such a step.

Gerald Oehler, president of a Salinas medical group, attended the meeting and declared, “A town without a library is a town without a conscience. It’s an embarrassing situation.”

Posted December 3, 2004.