Fayette County taxpayers, regardless of where they live, need to know that their county taxes paid the Flint River Regional Library System in Griffin $73,000 in 2005 for library support to the county.
This assessment is in addition to the operational costs of staffing, facilities, books and materials, and maintenance for the county’s four libraries, all of which are paid for by county and municipal taxes.
The regional library provides supplemental services which are largely limited to centralized ordering, cataloging, and delivery of new books.
Books are paid for by the individual libraries, not by the regional library. Although the county pays the annual assessment, the Flint River Regional Library provides no financial accounting to show how this money is spent, information which the Fayette County Commission has been requesting since July.
Fayette County is the only county in the state where municipal libraries are charged additional fees for service by the regional library. Paulding County, with a population similar to Fayette County, has three libraries and paid just $7,000 to the West Georgia Regional Library System in 2005 for library support. Fayette County was assessed more than 10 times this amount by the Flint River Regional Library System for similar services.
State library funding to include state and federal grants is currently allocated to the Flint River Regional Library for distribution as it sees fit.
With a separate Fayette County library system, these assets would be allocated directly to the county for support of all four of the libraries in Fayette County: the Peachtree City Library, Tyrone Library, Brooks Library, and the Fayette County Public Library.
Currently the Brooks Library receives no support from the regional library because Brooks cannot afford to pay the regional library assessment.
A number of years ago, Clayton County and Henry County both withdrew from the Flint River Regional Library for similar reasons and they now successfully operate their own county library systems.
Fayette County is ready to step up to the big league. We are no longer a small rural county that needs the help of the big library in Griffin, the Flint River Regional Library. Our tax money will be better spent in our own county in direct support of the four libraries in the Fayette County.
Jo B. Rusin
Tyrone, Ga.