With the possibility of significant library cuts leading ongoing Cobb budget talks, District 2 commissioner Bob Ott was adamant on Monday that the East Cobb Library would not be among them.
It’s one of several Cobb library branches slated for closure or consolidation in a staff recommendation for fiscal year 2019, and one that has generated strong community opposition.
At the outset of his town hall meeting at the new Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center, Ott said that “we’re going to dispel some serious misconceptions about the libraries.”
While the meeting included discussions about transit, zonings, county employee pay increases and tax assessments, many in the packed audience of around 300 people came out to plead for the preservation of the East Cobb Library.
The commissioners met last fall on a budget retreat and heard many recommendations for reducing a projected deficit between $30 million and $55 million.
The proposed library cuts of $2.9 million amount to a quarter of the department’s budget. Cobb commission chairman Mike Boyce has proposed a property tax increase of 1.1 mills, but few other major budget proposals have been made public.
That’s what Ott referenced as he held up a thick binder from the retreat at the town hall, held in the Sewell Mill Library’s black box theater:
“Have you heard anything else mentioned?” There are a whole lot of proposals that have come from staff, but [suggestions to cut libraries] gets everybody riled up.”
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While the East Cobb Library doesn’t meet the county’s criteria for serving as a regional library due to being less than 20,000 square feet, because of its heavy use, Ott said, “we would all agree it’s a regional library.
“It isn’t going to close,” he said to loud applause.
The East Cobb Library is the third-busiest in the Cobb library system, with more than 250,000 materials checked out in 2017. It’s also the only branch that is in leased space, at the Parkaire Landing Shopping Center.
That rental expense is $263,000 a year, and it’s a factor that Northeast Cobb commissioner JoAnn Birrell cited when she suggested last year that the branch should close.
That got East Cobb residents in an outcry, and Ott was visibly upset in a town hall meeting he held at the library last summer.
“It’s been based on one commissioner who tried to close it, and she’s not here tonight,” Ott said Monday.
The East Cobb branch relocated from Merchants Walk in 2010, and leasing space at the time was considered more economical than building a county-owned facility, given local real estate prices.
When Ott was asked if it might be possible for the East Cobb Library to eventually get out of a leasing situation, he replied that “it’s a matter of finding the right opportunity.”
Ott opposes tax increases without finding savings in the current budget. Last year, he pressed for the closure of the business office at the East Cobb Government Service Center, a move that funded three new staff positions at the Sewell Mill Library.
He also mentioned the pending relocation of the Lewis A. Ray branch to the West Village development in Smyrna, which is offering 3,000 square feet of library space for $1 a year. That would save half the current operating cost of that branch.
“There are ways of doing this without raising your taxes,” Ott said.
Ott said that while many of his constituents contact him about right-of-ways and keeping medians maintained, his fellow commissioners hear often about keeping buildings open, including libraries.
“I don’t get e-mails about facilities,” he said. “You don’t necessarily want stuff. You want the place to look nice.”
He said that in order to ensure that the East Cobb Library stays open, he needs two other commissioners to vote with him. The budget is expected to be adopted in July.
“Send e-mails, not to me, but to the other commissioners and the chairman,” Ott said. “Let them hear what you think.
“You all know how to turn up the heat. Believe me, I’ve seen it.”
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