Some Facts about the Salinas Library Closure

• 30 Salinas library employees have received 60-day layoff notices. In the months leading up to the May library closure, 53 employees total will lose their jobs.
• The Friends of the Salinas Public Library are attempting to present an initiative to save the Salinas Public Library. The earliest it could be presented to the voters would be in summer.
• The decision to close the library was made after voters rejected a half-cent sales tax increase and a separate measure to raise utility rates for 61 large businesses. Either of these initiatives would have saved the library.
• In the last 18 months, 31 libraries have closed throughout America
• Angry Salinas residents have pointed out that Salinas's Hartnell College is in the process of constructing a 68,000 square foot "learning resource center," unavailable to the public.
• A cross-borrowing plan may allow Salinas residents use of the nearby Carmel public library system.
• The Friends of the Salinas Public Library are holding a meeting this Saturday, January 15th to officially begin their coalition to figure out ways to save the lirbary.

Comments

[Beth McKenzie]

Dear Salinas Residents;

I so sorry that you have to close your library because not enough voters approved a Tax that would keep your doors open. I work for a library in Morro Bay and I helped try to get voters in SLO County to vote Yes for a similar measure, that increase the sales tax. Of course SLO county failed to do so. Have you considered writing to Oprah.. or another prominent National Media Figure about this problem... I think that perhaps T.V. would reach more potential voters than a group of people.