Library concerns shared with commissioners
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STEUBENVILLE -- Public Library of Steubenville and Jefferson County Director Mike Gray told county commissioners Thursday a newly formed committee has been tasked with finding a solution to the long-running controversy surrounding LGBTQ materials on their shelves.
Gray called it a "contentious issue," and said the board decided to form the committee to "search for a solution ... that all parties will accept."
Two board members, two staff members and a community representative will be meeting to formulate a policy concerning "placement" of LGBTQ materials on library shelves.
"We are a public library and we serve the entire public," Gray said after the meeting. "While we want to be sensitive to their needs, but we also have a duty to intellectual freedom, to provide materials for everybody. We do have a committee that's going to be working on it."
Critics are calling for the materials to be removed from the shelves altogether or at least move children and young adult selections to the adult section, but Gray said to do either will expose the library to legal action.
"I can tell you, if we were to do either thing we'd be sued," he said. "So the board has established a committee and we're going work on it. Hopefully, by our November meeting we'll have a (framework) to deal with the problem."
He said there are kids in the community who do identify (as LGBTQ) and they should have access to materials that reflect their life.
"We're trying to thread the needle here," he said, adding it's "a really tough situation, and nobody's going to get everything they want."
"There's going to have to be some compromise," he said. "It's a tough situation, libraries all over the country are facing this. We're going to try and do the best we can."
"We're just getting started with this," he continued. "We're going to check around to see what other libraries have done. It's tough ... It's not going to happen overnight, it's a months long process."
Commissioner Dave Maple pointed out that while commissioners appoint several members to the library board, it is not the county's library and they have no authority over it.
"I don't want anyone to be confused by it," he said. "We're already receiving correspondence, calls about what commissioners are going to do about it. Frankly, nothing. It's an independent board."
Commissioner Eric Timmons said he was at the library board's last meeting and while he doesn't like the materials, "It's a shame (they'd) set themselves up for a lawsuit" if they got rid of them.
"You're right," he told Gray. "You're not going to make everybody happy."
Commissioners, meanwhile, gave Jefferson County Airpark manager Brian Thaxton the go-ahead to apply for an Ohio Department of Transportation 5 percent matching grant for a perimeter fence.
The funds would be paired with a $92,250 grant from the Federal Aviation Administration to pay for the design phase of the fencing project, intended to keep deer and other animals off the runway.
"It's a pretty good return on investment," Thaxton told commissioners.
Morelli agreed, telling Thaxton it's a good project. "The fence has been needed for a long time."
"It's one of the biggest things I've been pushing for," Thaxton replied. "I'm glad it's finally starting to take root."
Thaxton said it will involve installing "a little over 2 miles of fencing, it will be 12 feet tall with barbed wire dug into the ground two feet, the whole way."
He told commissioners they're working on land swap at the corner of the project area with a neighboring property owner, "a quarter of an acre or less.
"It's a corner of the land, it's 2800 square feet, for the fence, it's just a small triangle," he said. "We're looking at taking that 2,800 square feet and giving (the other property owner) 2,800 square feet."
He said the swap is "in the planning stage right now, we're trying to get something those folks are comfortable with," but assured commissioners nothing would be done without their involvement.
"It's a good project," Maple said. "If you look at projects through the history of that airport, some of them were pretty big. (This one is) still a pretty big one."
Commissioners also applauded Auditor E.J. Conn and the Automated Data Processing Board's initiative in coming up with a plan to improve connectivity without boosting costs inordinately.
The plan calls for fiber optic connections for what he called "critical facilities" -- the three county courts and services complex, the Smithfield and Irondale county garages and the courthouse itself.
Conn told commissioners they'd like to go to a dedicated fiber connection for the courthouse, with dedicated transmission connections starting with the three county courts, the services complex and the Smithfield and Irondale county garages.
Each of the outlying sites currently has its own server and network infrastructure "because we don't have the transmission connections to transport that large amount of data back here."
With the fiber network those wouldn't be needed.
"Right now, we have non-dedicated Comcast connections, so as traffic increases on the internet speeds go down and we suffer issues," Conn said, pointing out there'd be "a lot of benefits" to the county in this project, not least of which would be they wouldn't have to maintain servers and network infrastructure at the other sites.
He said they're currently facing an upgrade at the services complex that will cost well over $100,000. "That goes away (with the fiber connection). Likewise, the county court received a grant for infrastructure upgrades there, but there's no guarantee every time we go to do an upgrade there'd be a grant available."
He said elected officials support the plan, "and the cost increase to the county isn't all that much - the courts are picking up their share of the cost, engineering and the water department will pick up their portion, which they're already doing. The general fund would just be responsible for the Horizon internet cost, and said they've identified "a number of static network addresses that are not being utilized, I think we can get rid of those."
"So in the end, you're not putting a (lot more) in," he said. "This is feasible, we feel. And we think you'll see a large benefit to the county."
Maple applauded their initiative, telling Conn the committee "was definitely looking at improves and there's a nice cost to this. A lot of people would let things stay as they are."
"I'll say up front, I'm for it, it's not that much more expensive for the service we'll be getting," Commissioner Tony Morelli agreed, adding he'd like to find a way to "get wireless to the fairgrounds."
Conn told him Horizon has the capability to run a fiber connection to the fairgrounds, which would allow fair officials to set up a Wi-Fi connection.
"It's doable, for sure," he said, adding the Jefferson County Airpark and the animal shelter could be added down the road.
"This is our first bite at the apple," he added. "It's going to take a decent amount of work, so we took the departments we felt were most in need at this moment, but airpark and animal shelter def on the to do list.