Amid Proposed Closures, Residents Say They Need Rural Libraries

Twenty minutes after the Salkum Timberland Library closed its doors for the day Tuesday, half a dozen cars remained in the parking lot, occupied by locals making use of the free wireless Internet. It’s a common scene at the three libraries in East Lewis County, where WiFi is scarce and expensive. 

“I have to use the Internet here,” said Salkum resident Jesse Nequette, who said he’s often at the library six days a week. “I can’t afford it at home. I don’t know what I’m going to do without this.”

Nequette and others throughout the Timberland Regional Library system are worried after last week’s release of a proposal that would close nearly a third of Timberland’s 27 libraries. Those closures include five in The Chronicle’s coverage area — Salkum, Randle, Packwood, Tenino and Oakville. At all five locations this week, patrons said the libraries are important to their communities, providing a vast array of resources that are irreplaceable to the rural areas they serve.

In Salkum, the library’s meeting room is utilized by alternative and adult high school programs, Alcoholics Anonymous and 4-H groups. The Master Gardener program run by the Washington State University Extension operates a demonstration garden on the property. Librarians provide one-on-one resume assistance and computer training. 

“We got people who live up around here, Toledo, even Vader comes out here,” said Toledo resident Fred Wilson, a Master Gardener who was working the soil in Salkum Tuesday morning. “The come down too from Packwood even.”

Having a garden in Salkum provides a hub for East County gardeners, who can’t always make the trip to the Twin Cities. That program is one of many that would face unintended consequences from the proposed closures, and Wilson said he was disappointed to learn of the proposal. 

“It’s kind of crappy,” he said.

Timberland’s Capital Facilities Proposal was written by the system’s administrative staff based out of the Administrative Service Center in Tumwater. It was written to address a projected budget deficit that Timberland officials say is poised to grow rapidly in the next few years. The 98-page document was first presented at a board meeting in Ilwaco last week, where board members emphasized they’d had little time to look the proposal over themselves, and decisions were far from final.

Still, in the communities whose libraries are listed as proposed closures, residents are concerned and distrustful of Timberland’s leadership. The board voted last week for a last-minute renewal of the lease of the Mountain View Library in Randle, after a massive show of support from the community and outcry over the secretive nature of its potential closure. 

Resident after resident approached the front desk at Mountain View Tuesday, asking staff members for the latest information and expressing dismay at having nearly lost their library.

Staff members at Timberland libraries have been directed to steer media inquiries to TRL’s administration.

“Should we be worried?” one resident asked. No one was really sure.

In Randle, residents also talked about the importance of WiFi, as the library is the community’s only hotspot. It’s also the only gathering place.

“If I have to meet someone face to face, I say, ‘Meet me in the library,’” said Randle resident Scott Augur. “I see it used in a lot of ways by a lot of different people. You need buildings and personnel to be able to manifest community.” 

Mountain View hosts a local homeschool group, a Centralia College East GED program and many other formal and informal activities. With a dearth of nearby public meeting places, it’s been used by students who need to take proctored tests and residents who need to meet a physician for health checkups.

“This is the social center. This is the heartbeat,” said Randle resident Margaret Cain. “Randle would be so much emptier without the library. They know you. They know your name. They know what books you like to read. ... This is the one place you can come and not be expected to spend any money. The only thing they lack is a library cat.”

The library sponsors plenty of its own events, such as summer youth programs that averaged 50 to 100 kids at each event. Teen nights typically bring out two dozen students. Upcoming events will bring in experts to connect veterans with resources, teach seniors about tax exemptions, help grieving people navigate the holiday season, provide information on preparing wills and testaments and help people learn to operate technological devices.

“The library, like many other people in Lewis County, is my only Internet portal,” said Glenoma resident Dave Thomas. “One of the ways that I remain free and independent is by living within my needs, and that means that I don’t have satellite television or Internet service.”

Thomas said Mountain View’s DVD collection is especially important to the area, where most people don’t have cable or satellite TV.

This year has also seen a new partnership between the East County libraries and the U.S. Forest Service. Mountain View hosted a Story Trail event in June in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, where a mile-long trail was lined with poster-sized pages from a children’s book, and a Smokey Bear mascot greeted attendees. The Randle and Packwood libraries now have USFS-donated backpacks that can be checked out, which include binoculars, field guides and a Northwest Forest Pass that provides free entry to many public lands. Librarians said the backpack kits have been a huge hit. 

“(Story Trail) was easily one of the favorite projects I’ve ever done. We were hoping to continue it, we were going to pick a new story for next year,” said Forest Service recreation planner and wilderness manager Andrea Durham. “The backpacks have been super popular with the Northwest Forest Pass. … I think the partnership has been super successful. Sixty people is a huge event for up here. There were so many kids. It was one of my favorite days ever working for the Forest Service.”

Cookie Troxel, who has been one of Mountain View’s most outspoken backers, wants Timberland to think about more than cost savings when it considers potential closures.

“If I’m not here every day, there are other people who are,” she said. “And those people are my friends, and basically an extension of my human family. I don’t want to see them damaged, and they will be if something happens to this library. The price of human misery that could happen with the loss of this library is something that they never took into consideration. It’s all about the bottom line — money.”

That sentiment extended to Packwood, where residents said the library is important to both locals and tourists alike. Staff members noted that visitors often come into the library to find information, and Pacific Crest Trail hikers utilize its printer to obtain the permits they need.

“I always like to look at libraries, because it gives you a measure of the community. This is a nice, warm, engaging library,” said Sam Leader, who was visiting the nearby forests on vacation from Sebastopol, California. “They have the field guide I’m interested in. I don’t recognize trees, and it will be interesting to find them.”

Plenty of locals said they depend on the library as well. Nancy Peterson, a mother of six, said she homeschools her kids and uses the library to find school books, children’s literature and novels for her family.

“When our Internet goes down, we have literally sat outside and my kids have taken tests online,” she said.

Packwood resident John Squires said he has used the library for decades, and its value to the community is immeasurable.

“I talk to the librarians, and 99 times out of 100 they’ll be able to find the information you want,” he said. “This is where everybody meets. We have a lot of older people, they’ll get a new piece of technology, and the librarians will help walk them through — how do you turn something on, how do you use your computer? Without that help, I don’t know that a lot of them would be able to do it. It’s an invaluable resource.”

Squires perked up when a librarian greeted a patron by her first name, an exchange that seemed to be common throughout the five libraries.

“See? That’s a rural library,” he said. “That’s the difference. They know their patrons.”

Packwood’s library hosts preschool story time, an adult art series, a writers’ group, a needlework club and summer youth programs. 

Lori Gibson was at the Oakville Timberland Library Wednesday using a computer to coordinate volunteer work she does for nonprofits that assist widows of military veterans. She said she can’t get Internet or cell service where she lives on the outskirts of the Chehalis Reservation. 

“The next library that’s available if this one closes is going to be Elma, and that’s about 20 miles one way,” she said. “If this is going to be something that’s happening, it going to be a tremendous hardship for me personally. … We don’t have anyplace else to go. There’s no Starbucks here. If this area closes, what are we going to do do?”

In addition to the Internet access, Oakville has upcoming programs on watercolor and acrylic painting, honoring veterans and early literacy. During the summer, it offered a STEM program to teach coding.

Outside of the Tenino Timberland Library, Jeremy Holbrook was picking two of his kids up after school. He said it’s the easiest location for the family to meet, and the library provides a safe facility where his kids enjoy spending time when classes let out.

“If they need information, they have people here who are smarter than me,” he said. “For a little town like this, it’s a big thing. This isn’t Seattle. You close down something like this, there’s no place for the kids to go.”

The Tenino branch offers programs like adult crafts and family story time, and it’s used by tutors and students, as well as noncustodial parents who need a public space for supervised visitations. The library’s upcoming events include a sandstone carving demonstration and an informational session to answer questions about Medicare enrollment.

Tenino resident Debbie Brown lives three blocks from the library, and she regularly brings her two grandchildren, who live two blocks away. The kids like hanging out and socializing, as well as bringing home books and movies. She also checks out audiobooks for her 90-year-old mother.

“If this library was to close, it would affect everybody in my family,” Brown said. “The children look forward to coming here. They participate in the summer reading programs. … This is so important to our family.”