Fee foes lose out on city library vote

Forest Grove will begin charging fines for overdue materials starting July 1

By John Schrag

The Forest Grove News-Times, Jun 10, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (1 Reader comment)

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Starting next month, if you’re late in returning Michelle Tullier’s book “Overcoming Procrastination” to the Forest Grove City Library, you’ll pay.

Despite concerns raised by a parade of impassioned patrons, the Forest Grove City Council has decided to reinstate late fees on library materials. Forest Grove officials scrapped library fees in 1975.

The discussion of library fines wasn’t supposed to begin until midway through the Monday night council meeting, but Emily Eason couldn’t resist jump-starting the debate.

Eason, a 15-year-old Forest Grove home-school student, was honored at the start of the meeting for her winning submission in the “If I Were Mayor” student contest.

After presenting Eason with a certificate, Mayor Richard Kidd asked Eason if she wanted to say a few words.

Eason looked out at the large crowd and said, “I just want to say that if I were mayor, I would not put fines on the library.”

Three hours later, the real mayor and all but one of his colleagues on the council rejected Eason’s advice, saying fees were needed to generate money and encourage people to return materials on time.

The decision leaves North Plains as the only city library in the county that doesn’t charge late fees.

Karen Shepard, president of the city’s library commission, spoke in favor of the move saying the current policy promotes “irresponsible behavior.” But she was the lone voice for fees in the audience and on the advisory panel. Anita Eller, vice president of the library commission, urged the councilors to study the issue further before making a decision which she said could undermine support for the library.

Much of the hour-long discussion centered on money. City officials expect the library to collect $15,000 in fines during the next fiscal year, which starts July 1. But the bigger question is what effect the new policy will have on the number of books, DVDs and other materials that are checked out and renewed.

The bulk of the library’s funding comes from Washington County, which bases its annual payments on the volume of materials that are checked out of each public library.

Mayor Kidd said he expects the circulation numbers to jump as the prospect of fines prompts people to return or renew books before they are overdue.

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