Petition to dissolve rural library district has been certified by auditor

DAYTON - The second petition submitted to put a proposition to dissolve the Columbia County Rural Library District on the November ballot has been certified. The Columbia County Auditor's Office found 163 signatures of the 186 submitted on the petition were from qualified voters registered in the county's unincorporated areas. Petitioners needed at least 107 qualifying signatures, representing 10% of registered voters in the unincorporated areas of the county to be certified.

The library board directors received notice of the certification from Auditor Will Hutchens on July 24.

The board must now prepare a draft resolution to put the issue on the ballot. Library Board Chair Jay Ball will call a special meeting of the board after attorneys review the document.

The board has until August 9 to submit the resolution to be included on the general election ballot.

At the July library board meeting, there was confusion by some in the audience as to whether Jessica Ruffcorn would take back the petition after news that the library was moving the Young Adult non-fiction section. Unfortunately, once a petition has been submitted to the county auditor, it cannot be retracted.

Ruffcorn and a group of residents decided the petition and possible dissolution of the library district was their only option after they disagreed with the outcome of ten requests for reconsideration filed in September 2022. The library director received the ten requests for review, which listed only seven specific titles. These were books written for young and adult readers about race and LGBTQ topics.

After reviewing the requests under the library's collection development policy, the books remained in the collection. One book was appealed to the board which decided to support the director's decision.

There have not been any other requests for reconsideration filed since then.

Should voters decide to dissolve the rural library district, all library materials will go to the state library, other assets must be sold, and the building will go back to the city.