By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
It’s not the money, it’s the principle of the thing.
That was how Michael Penrod, Wood County District Public Library director, summarized his view of the recent vote in which residents of four parcels of property voted to leave the Bowling Green School District, and join other districts.
Two of those parcels, one in Center Township shifting to the Eastwood school district, and Plain Township shifting to Otsego, are part of the library’s district, which is determined by school district boundaries.
Voters in the two parcels as well as six other parcels voted earlier this month on whether to leave the Bowling Green School District. Four passed and four failed. The two others that passed were not served by the Bowling Green Library, Penrod said.
If all had passed, the library stood to lose about $32,000 in revenue from its operating levy. That 0.8 mill levy raises $1 million a year and is up for renewal on Nov. 3.
Library Trustee Michael Sibbersen, the retired county auditor, said he inquired to the auditor’s office and was told that the loss of the Center Township parcel would cost the library $7,627 annually in levy revenue and the loss of Plain Township would cost it $2,908. There also would be the loss of some pipeline revenues, which have just started to come in. Penrod said that the library received about $21,000 last year. But those payments can be challenged by the pipeline company every year, so Penrod has insisted their receipt should not be counted on.
The $10,500 is just a small percentage of the revenue the levy generates, Penrod said. “It’s not about the money for me, it’s about the principle. Which library is best positioned to serve the residents?” Both those parcels are adjacent to the Bowling Green city limits. If Bowling Green grows, he said, “as I hope it does,” parts of the city would be served by three different libraries. “That just seems confusing.”
State Library of Ohio determines a library district’s boundaries. The library could initiate a process, “which is long and cumbersome,” to reaffirm the boundaries as they are. That would have no effect on which school district serves those parcels.
The process would involve comment by adjacent library districts, and library districts adjacent to them.
Completing the district switch looks like it will be time consuming as well, said Trustee Ellen Dalton. She said, as a member of the League of Women Voters, she participated in a Zoom meeting with BG School Superintendent Francis Scruci.
He said the law that made the move to secede possible is being challenged in Stark County, where the law had its origins. The judge is overdue to announce the ruling. Regardless of how the judge rules, the loser is expected to appeal with the issue, probably ending up at the Ohio Supreme Court.
The process also involves the township trustees and receiving school districts meeting to decide how to handle the request to join the district, and then a negotiation between BG and the receiving districts on how to handle the financials, including payment of bond issues.
Penrod said local process “should take a year to go through.”
The two parcels will still be part of the library district in November and will vote on the levy.
Board President Brian Paskvan said he didn’t like to see these parcels leave given that they are “a stone’s throw from the library,” but he was also reluctant to get the library involved in a complex process of reaffirming its borders. Penrod said he was not aware of a time limit for the library to request to reaffirm its borders. He said he would check with the State Library.
Trustees Ken Frisch and John Fawcett both argued in favor of letting the process play out before the board decided to do anything.
The board did not take any action on the issue.
