Library sites are questioned in north Boone

STURGEON — On a dreary Tuesday afternoon, stay-at-home mom Cathy Marek and her three daughters arrive in their minivan at the parking lot of a small grocery store. But they’re not here to pick up milk or bread. They are here to browse for books.

Every other week, the Daniel Boone Regional Library’s bookmobile makes its home beside Larry’s AF Super grocery store. For residents of this town of about 900, the closest permanent library in the Boone County Library District is in downtown Columbia, about 23 miles away.

On April 3, residents of the Boone County Library District will be asked to support a 21-cent increase in the district’s property tax levy that would finance the construction and operation of a northern library at the Boone County Fairgrounds and a southern library in Ashland. The proposed site for the northern branch would reduce the distance that residents of Sturgeon, Harrisburg and Hallsville would have to travel to get to a library. But for some, the site is not far enough north.

“The site isn’t in northern Boone County,” said John Schultz, chairman of the Boone County Libertarian Party, who lives near Hallsville. “It’s really just northern Columbia.”

Hallsville Mayor Carl South also dislikes the plan.

“We feel we’re being slighted a little bit, because (the site) is really just a suburb on the northern edge of Columbia,” he said. “A lot of people are unhappy about it, and I’m one of them.”

Though Halls­ville is small, South says it is growing and could support a library.

John Schloot, executive director of the Hallsville Area Chamber of Commerce, is mounting a campaign against the tax.

“We’re not anti-tax or anti-library,” Schloot said. “It’s just that we don’t have library services in northern Boone County. All that our communities are getting is a bookmobile twice a month.”

A campaign that will include ads on KFRU/1400 AM radio, in the Southern Boone County Journal and the Northern Boone County Bullseye will highlight the chamber’s dissatisfaction with the library board’s choice of location and spending. Schloot hopes that if the tax fails, the library board will find a better location for a northern branch.

“We’re not looking for a multimillion-dollar structure,” Schloot said. “We’re looking for library services ... in a location that will better serve the citizens of Hallsville, Harrisburg and Sturgeon.”

A task force was assembled in the early stages of the planning to gauge interest in northern Boone County and to study criteria for minimum population size and density of the location. The projected total cost for the construction and related services of the northern branch is just more than $10.5 million. The size is expected to be between 15,000 and 20,000 square feet.

Melissa Carr, director of the Daniel Boone Regional Library, said the location was chosen primarily because the population of northern Columbia is expected to grow.

“The Columbia housing market shows that area is growing,” said Carr, referring to the Columbia metro area north of Interstate 70 and east of U.S. 63.

Jessica Robinson, a member of the county library district’s board of trustees, said that the choice of the Atkins tract was part of a careful planning process.

“One of the exercises we did was to look at a 15-minute drive time,” Robinson said. “We wanted as many people as possible to be able to get from their driveways to the library in 15 minutes. With access to Route B, Hallsville fits within the target frame.”

Still, South doesn’t expect the tax to pass in northern Boone County. Schloot said the overall vote may be close, but he predicts northern residents will overwhelmingly oppose it.

“I think it’s going to be very divided between north and south,” he said. “Everyone I talk to in northern Boone County is against it. They feel that their kids are being left behind by this library board.”

For Marek, the bookmobile is enough. She wouldn’t use a library in northern Columbia or in Hallsville.

“I can always get a book I need by requesting it, and the library’s Web site is user-friendly,” she said, “it’s just easier to use the bookmobile.”