Utah County shelves its library board

PROVO — Without fanfare, or additional public discussion, the Utah County Commission dissolved the county library board Tuesday — a decision that caught at least one board member, and a mayor, off guard.

Shelving the library board was the right thing to do, said Utah County Commissioner Steve White. He said the move was an effort to streamline county government.

The library board hadn't met in months and, a few weeks ago, board chairwoman Deborah Glenn stepped down from her post.

"The (chairwoman) resigned, and we don't have a county library. Why do we have a library board?" White asked. "Seeing how we had no need for a library board, we decided to just get rid of it. It doesn't change any level of service. It simply was an advisory group."

Members of the library board expressed some frustration at what they perceived as a general lack of support from the county.

"Library service doesn't seem to be the county's main priority," said board member Harlow Clark.

Highland Mayor Jess Adamson said he was "somewhat surprised" by the commission's decision. He is a proponent of a countywide library system that would make books and other information resources available. He said he and other mayors in the county want to find more-effective ways to accommodate residents.

Recently, mayors at a Council of Governments meeting talked about the possibility of implementing a countywide library system.

"There are many mayors that want to have a dialogue about it and investigate it," Adamson said. "As mayors, we need to continue discussing it. If we work together, we could have a library system like the one in Salt Lake County, which is lacking in Utah County right now."

"Utah County needs a good countywide system," Clark said. "Besides Provo and Orem, there's not a library that adequately meets the needs of the population."

Though the issue appeared on the commission's consent agenda, there was no public discussion during Tuesday's meeting about the decision to dissolve the board, which was established in the 1980s. The topic had been discussed three times in the past four months, according to White.

"We felt no need to discuss it again," he said.

While the county does not have a library system, it pays about $120,000 a year for a bookmobile that serves unincorporated areas. Also, the Mapleton City Library stores several thousand books, as well as a few computers, for county residents to use.