Portage County voters divided on library services
Ravenna approved the renewal levy for its library, but rural voters overwhelmingly rejected a request from the country district library
In late May the Portage County District Library began preparations for a levy on the November ballot. The one mill levy would have given them an opportunity to roll back extensive budget cuts put in place at the start of the pandemic and begin to bring back services. On Nov. 3, voters turned down their request.
Meanwhile, in Ravenna, voters overwhelmingly approved Reed Memorial Library’s renewal issue, which continues a 1.5 mill levy that was approved in 2015 and 2010.
The tale of two library districts illustrated the challenge of asking Portage County voters, particularly those in rural areas, to take on new taxes, no matter how small the amounts. And it sends the county library system back to the drawing board.
“Any time that you have a loss like this, as far as feelings are concerned, it stings a bit,” said Jonathan Harris, director of the Portage County District Library. “But the fact that we have that many supporters out there, that haven’t been mobilized in the past, and hadn’t come out to the polls for us in the past, does give me some hope that we have a chance at this.”
The library district primarily serves rural portions of the county, with five locations in Randolph, Garrettsville, Windham, Streetsboro and Aurora. Though the district received more yes votes than ever before, with 25,982 supporters, it was not enough to overcome the 29,454 votes against.
The votes seemed to trace economic lines. In Aurora, where the median household income is over $94,000 a year, residents voted in favor of the levy, with nine out of 13 precincts voting yes.
While the library did well in northern villages and cities, it struggled to regain the trust of voters in the southern townships of the county — areas such as Brimfield Township, still reeling from the loss of library services a decade ago when the last round of budget cuts came down.
“We do understand that there’s a significant area of the county where they really haven’t seen library services in a personal sense,” Harris said. “It does get a little bit tricky trying to communicate out in those areas.”
Harris said if a levy can pass next year the library would look to bring back its Bookmobile and more in-person services. As it stands, aside from home delivery and their express box service, the 25 hours a week the Randolph library branch is open is the lion’s share of services offered to most of the southern portion of the county. To reinstate services will cost money, money the library doesn’t have, and isn’t guaranteed to have.
The vast majority of the library’s funding comes from the state general fund, which is made up of mostly sales and income tax. That fund took a hit this year because of the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown measures to slow the spread of the virus. The drop in state funding saw a reduction in the library budget not seen since the Great Recession of 2008.
The library was able to stay above water this year by cutting all but the highest-priority essentials: personnel and protective equipment. Budgets for materials, such as books and movies, were scrapped entirely, Harris said. Despite these cuts, and a looming forecast of an additional $300,000 budget cut from the state, he remains positive and is working with the library board to prepare a new levy for November 2021, one he hopes will appeal to more voters.
“For me, when we go on the ballot we try to frame it as, ‘The people that benefit from this, if it isn’t you, it is your neighbor,’” Harris said. “So we’re trying to push something that at its core is helping your neighbors.”
Voters in Ravenna and Ravenna Township had their own library levy to decide on this year and gave it a resounding yes. Over 6,000 voted to continue Reed Memorial Library’s five-year operational 1.5 mil levy. Those funds are critical to the library’s ability to operate, pay workers and afford protective equipment, Library Director Brian Hare said.
“I think it’s a statement from our community that we serve,” Hare said. “They appreciate what we offer, that we provide it to everyone, and that it’s important to the community.”
This is the second time the library posed a renewal to the community, with the first renewal in 2015, five years after the original levy passed. In 2010 the library posed a levy to the community after a series of budget cuts from the state during the recession.
As Reed weathers another fiscal crisis a decade later, it hopes it can help community members get through in more ways than one. Library staff are being trained to help disadvantaged patrons and connect them with local resources.
“The best thing that we can do is be prepared and have the budget that allows us to provide those resources, or at the very least point folks to the proper resources,” Hare said. “Hopefully, there was some resonance there with folks going to the ballot and saying, ‘I’m not sure what the situation is going to be in the next coming years, but I really want my library to be fully available to me.’”
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