Expansion unnecessary: county should fund branches beyond Chapel Hill

If nearly half a library’s users are commuters, their local libraries are failing them. Orange County should dedicate funds to improve its general library system rather than expand just the Chapel Hill Public Library.

The Orange County Board of Commissioners plans to vote on the Chapel Hill library’s budget June 1.

Orange County pays for 11 percent of Chapel Hill library’s overall budget. The library argues this amount is insufficient, given 40 percent of the library’s users live outside the town limits, where their taxes do not support the library.

Chapel Hill library is requesting $1.2 million from the county to fund an expansion that more than doubles its square footage, in order to handle its growing demand.

But beefing up the Chapel Hill library only aggravates the problem by encouraging citizens to ignore the three existing branches.

Should commissioners vote against the increase, the library is considering charging nonresidents to access its facility.

But nonresidents already commit to driving into Chapel Hill for the library, a historically free resource. To tack on a charge to join is preposterous.

Instead, commissioners can sidestep the demands of the Chapel Hill library by redistributing money to library branches in the rest of the county.

The problem likely stems from Carrboro, where the library is housed in McDougle Middle School and open for a combined eight hours on the weekend.

A better Carrboro library would lessen the Chapel Hill library’s demand, thus diminishing its budget needs.

Inadequate resources and an off-putting location drive Carrboro readers to the Chapel Hill library. Carrboro readers should not have to suffer for the town’s library failures.

Orange County commissioners need to use the June 1 vote to support the entire county’s public library system — rather than one component of it.