Suddenly Three Rivers?

Special for residents of Pierce County

 I am a proud resident of Pierce County, having moved here 27 years ago. My partner was born here and has been a lifelong resident. There is much to love about Pierce County. The people are friendly, kind, and always willing to lend a helping hand. My political bent differs from the vast majority, but I have never felt persecuted.

Pierce County Public Schools are fantastic, and they are one of the best systems in the state. Our son attended from pre-K to Graduation and received a first-rate education. It laid the foundation for him to graduate with honors from college, and he is now employed as a computer programmer.

In addition to the best parts of Pierce County, there is an added benefit of being close to Waycross. Many of us have friends, family, and jobs in Waycross. I worked at a Waycross CPA firm for more than two decades. As an inveterate community theatre hamwich, I have performed many Plays with the Waycross Area Community Theatre. We go to a church in Waycross. We often shop and occasionally eat a meal there.

We also use the Waycross/Ware County Library. They have specific programs, including book clubs, Crafternoons, and Eating Well with Chef Andy. But that only supplements our use of the Pierce County Library. We also use their services, and I often read for story time with Caboose Express.

All it takes is one library card to use at both libraries. Their services are closely related, and getting books from one or the other is easy. You can enjoy such services as Libby (ebooks and audiobooks), Kanopy (streaming service), Glass (for the hearing and sight impaired), and Mango ( learning foreign languages). All this and more comes from Pierce County’s affiliation with the Okefenokee Regional Library.

There is a fast-moving effort to move the Pierce County Library to the Three Rivers Library System based in Jesup. There may be legitimate business and patron reasons to consider this move. However, the decision is not being made methodically or with careful analysis.

Why? Because some local politicians and members of different boards operate from lies, rumors, and innuendo. And they are trying to force the local board into the move. 

They are willing to destroy the local library because they falsely believe that the Ware County Commission has given a list of specific demands for the Waycross/Ware County Library to give in to or risk being defunded at the end of June. Simply, there is no actual written list of demands. There can’t be.

Why? Because at the root of what they want is sheer discrimination against the lgbtq+ community, and they don’t want to run the risk of being blatant about their demands. This could engender exposure to lawsuits. So, they are trying to pass forward the risk to the Waycross/Ware County Library Board and, failing that, the Okefenokee Regional Library Board. This may be moot one way or another because of the regional meeting on May 6^th. Again, it’s hard to say what will come from it since the demands are not concrete.  

Interestingly, the same County Board that withholds funding also approved using an almost million-dollar grant to improve the physical facility of the Waycross/Ware County Library. This makes me believe withholding funding for the library is all storm and thunder, signifying nothing. It is just a tremendous bluff to see how far they can push the library to be discriminatory.

The Pierce County Library Board meets on Thursday, May 9^th, to decide whether to switch library systems. I am very sympathetic to what they are dealing with. Political blackmail is never a pleasant thing to see.

Clearly, I don’t want to see the library move to a more distant system that will have incompatibilities with our sister community, Waycross. However, if worse comes to worse and the Pierce Library moves to the Three Rivers System, I will continue to support and love our local library.

But this will not solve all the problems. There are groups in our community who want to exclude the lgbtq+ community from being welcomed or supported. They will be inspired by this move, inspired to come after the library even harder. Nothing will solve this until Pierce County stands firm against the forces that would destroy and diminish our public library. Otherwise, if they sense weakness, they will demand more and more.

Please support your public library and the fundamental ideal that libraries are for everyone. Make sure you communicate this to your local representative. Right now, a loud minority is dictating things while most of us remain silent.

I love our public library. I want to see it grow and thrive and serve everybody. I pray you do, too.