By KIRBY NEUMANN-REA
News editor

Hood River County Library supporters spoke out in force Wednesday and the Board of Commissioners acted quickly.

By unanimous vote, the commissioners present said yes to creating an order to form a library taxing district.

This means the board will hold one more hearing, on Feb. 16, before the order is official. That clears the last hurdle for the library district proposal to be placed on the ballot in May 2010.

Michael Schock, Library Foundation president and chairman of the Save Our Library (SOL) political action committee, noted that what lies ahead is the hard work of informing the public about the need to vote for the formation of the taxing district.

“This is a very valuable resource to the community. The vote will have historical implications,” he said.

Peter Frothingham of Odell said “Having a viable library in the community is a very important thing. It’s a gathering place for the children and the rest of the community.”

George Earley of Mt. Hood said “Losing the library would be a crying shame, and a disservice to the next generations.”

Jules Burton, SOL member, said, “While it will cost more, some things are worth paying for.”

Her son, Ben Dane, 15, said there is a theme in literature having to do with “bad places,” and one of those is lack of books.

“If we remove the easy books from the community, then think about what could happen,” Dane said.

The political action committee was formed to advocate for creation of a new taxing district that will fund three libraries in Hood River County: the downtown library and the Cascade Locks and Parkdale branches.

SOL is being headed by Schock and Mike Schend to determine the level of funding needed by the district.

The Hood River County Library Task Force has recommended that voters be asked to approve a tax rate of 70 cents per $1,000 of assessed property valuation. The revenue will fund all three library branches.

“A lot of work and a lot of coordination has gone into this. I’m very impressed,” commissioner Ron Rivers told Schock and the 20 or so supporters gathered at the hearing.

In late 2009 the city councils for Cascade Locks and Hood River both agreed to place their jurisdictions inside the pending tax district.