Library Board Selects The Best Option

The Gwinnett County Board of Library Trustees voted last night to back away from a regional library concept and to keep the award-winning community-based system currently in place. The Board chose to keep all 14 currently-operating branches and to bring the nearly completed Hamilton Mill Branch online at about 35 hours per week. The Board will ask the public to help set the scheduled times and days of the week so that some library branches will be open each day of the week. I believe this is the best option available in our current economic situation.

I want to personally thank the Dacula Business Association, Chad Parson, President, and Colin Daymude (Save Dacula Library Facebook group) for their assistance in convincing the Library Board to hear this solution. I appreciate each man, woman, boy and girl who sent messages to the Library Board, the Board of Commissioners, to newspapers and the media asking for full-service libraries complete with books as well as the electronic technology currently available at our library branches. Just because Dacula was the first cut, we shouldn't forget the people in Snellville and Lilburn who joined with us. Kudos also go out to Commissioners Nasuti, Kenerly and Beaudreau for their help. Equally as important is the concern of Representative Donna Sheldon and Senator Renee Unterman in helping come up with this solution.

I would be remiss in not recognizing the service of the Library Board and its professional staff. Sometimes rhetoric fails to express an admiration for the individuals providing public service. This economic downturn has put us all in an uncomfortable position, no less the Library Board. I'm sure that we all depend on professional staff. That's our comfort position. However, the Board has the final responsibility and say. I appreciate the Board's stepping out of its comfort zone to chose the most equitable option.

We shouldn't be finished here. Some of us made commitments to the library system. Some plan to volunteer, some to make donations to the Library Foundation. Some plan to continue to observe and offer suggestions. Don't forget your commitments--follow through!

Thank you for being engaged! This is what a sometimes messy representative government is all about.