It was standing room only Tuesday evening inside the pavilion of the Grant County Fairgrounds in John Day, as nearly 200 people urged Grant County’s government not to close the Grant County Library and to work with the library and its advocates to find alternative funding as the county faces a massive budget deficit.

Chris Ostberg, director of the library, was “very happy” with the turnout. “That is pretty doggone big for around here and at night,” she said.

She hopes momentum will continue to build for keeping the library open, including putting a measure on the May 2026 ballot that would create a special tax district, ensuring that the library would remain open.

During the hearing, speakers praised the library for being a community center, a gathering place, a safe place for kids; for providing free access to computers, printing services, and Wi-Fi in a county where large swaths do not have cell or Internet service; and for being, as Kathleen Prophet Harms of John Day put it, “a sanctuary.”

“It’s a place to go and research and learn and do continuing education and a place for people to go and focus,” Prophet Harms said.

“It was the only place where I can go to have a test proctored for me,” said Debbi Clark, a resident of Prairie City. “The library did that for me.”

Clark often takes her grandkids to the library, she continued, and sees other children and teenagers at the library. “Other than the city parks, there’s not a lot of places for our kids to go,” she said.

Sponsor

Clark was not the only person who said that Grant County’s children would suffer the most by the library’s closure. Others worried that closing the library would accelerate Grant County’s demographic and economic decline.

“It is not going to encourage people to come to our community,” Brandon Driggers of John Day said.

Attendees applauded after each speaker. As the hearing began, Jim Hamsher, who is the Grant County judge and served previously as a county commissioner, asked people not to applaud in order to save time. After one round, he reminded attendees to refrain.

“This is a public hearing, not a concert,” he quipped.  

But residents rarely contained themselves, and Hamsher gradually ceased his reminders. The only part of the public hearing that was remotely raucous came when one speaker said that no one on the budget committee or the county court had a library card, prompting gasps from the crowd.   

“That is not true,” Hamsher said. Later that evening, he told Oregon ArtsWatch that he has been a library card holder since he was 5 years old. “I haven’t checked out many books lately, because I read them on my phone,” he said.

Grant County’s library, located in John Day, is the only public library in the county, which has a population of 7,215. The next closest public libraries are in Baker City and Burns. Both cities are more than an hour’s drive away.

Sponsor

The library’s popularity and heavy use by its patrons is borne out by the numbers. According to statistics kept by the library, 25,587 books were checked out from the library in 2024, from the library’s collection and the Sage Library System, Eastern Oregon’s inter-library loan system.

That year, 160 new library cards were issued, and 5,716 people used the library’s three computers. That figure does not count the number of patrons who brought in their own laptops.

The library’s annual budget is $255,000. Those funds pay for the library’s operating expenses and the salaries of Ostberg and the assistant librarian. Additional grant funding from the State Library of Oregon, the library’s foundation, and other sources pays for the library’s summer reading program and other programs.

“This library has done an amazing job making [its budget] last every year,” Nina Day, a resident of John Day said toward the end of the two-hour hearing. She called closing the library “penny-wise and pound-foolish.”

Earlier in the day, Amy Brandt brought her 12-, 9-, and 7-year-old daughters to the library to check out books. Throughout the children’s section, Lego models — a Tyrannosaurus rex, construction scenes complete with tiny construction workers, castles and pirate ships — sit on top of the bookshelves, built by child patrons of the library. 

Brandt stopped at the circulation desk as she walked in. “Everyone we talked to is irate,” she said to Ostberg. “How are families supposed to live here?”

“My kids read like crazy, especially in the summer,” Brandt, speaking with Oregon ArtsWatch, said. Her family moved to John Day from Boise in 2023 when her husband got a job with the U.S. Forest Service in Grant County.

Sponsor

She said she doesn’t think her family would have moved if there had been no public library. “What kid grows up without a library?” she said.

A COUNTY IN DECLINE

On June 4, the three-member Grant County Court, the name for some county commissions in Eastern Oregon, voted to begin the process of defunding the public library.

The county faces a $1.5 million deficit in its upcoming budget. Hamsher said the deficit is due to numerous factors, including increases in county payments into Oregon’s state employee pension fund, the Public Employee Retirement System (PERS), as well as increased insurance rates, and decreased revenue from the county jail, the Secure Rural Schools funds, and loss of grants.

State law requires the county to hold two public hearings before voting to defund, and close, the library. Tuesday’s hearing was the first. The second is scheduled for Oct. 21.

Although the library’s current budget will last until June 2026, the county court could vote to close the library immediately after the October hearing.

For years, Grant County, one of Oregon’s most rural and sparsely populated counties, has faced decline.  

It is the only county in Oregon whose population dropped in the last two Census counts, in 2010 and 2020. The poverty rate is 15.2 percent, which is higher than the statewide rate of 12.2 percent, according to Census figures.

Sponsor

The county has faced budget deficits for years. Historically, the county was reliant on a robust timber industry, as well as ranching, but both industries have shrunk. “We’re slowly dying because of no change,” said Ostberg, who was born and raised in Grant County and has worked as the library’s director for 18 years.

Last year, to balance its budget, the county eliminated its economic development department. In 2022, John Day dissolved its police department and closed the public pool.

If the library closed, Grant County residents would lose access to the Sage Library System, Eastern Oregon’s inter-library loan program, and other resources requiring a library card. That includes the ability to use the Libby app, the State Library of Oregon’s annual Ready to Read grant, which amounts to about $10,000 a year and can be used for early literacy and/or summer reading programs, and other digital resources.  

During the hearing, one woman asked the county court whether, were the library to close, they would guarantee free “lifetime Wi-Fi at the county courthouse” and tolerate people asking, “do you mind if I sit on a bench?” to use it.

The library is not a mandated county service, and it does not generate revenue. “That is not what a library is for,” Ostberg said. “A library is for the health of your community. A library is a place where anyone can go and use resources. You help them learn. You spread knowledge.”

To all of a sudden say, ‘We’re going to close the doors,’” Ostberg said, is “not a solution to any problem.”

A GRASSROOTS COMMITTEE FORMS

Almost immediately after the June vote to begin dissolving the library, a committee of 15 people formed to save it.

Sponsor

Aptly naming themselves the Save Our Library Committee, the group — made up of members of the library’s board and private citizens — has met every week since the vote. “We have to find a solution,” Ostberg said. “Everyone feels that if you close the library, it will never open again.”

Agendas include the ground rule of “stay focused on actionable steps.” A petition that has circulated online and on paper has collected nearly 1,000 signatures. A July 7 letter to the county court sought clarification regarding the county’s willingness to keep the library open.

And they’ve done a lot of research. Investigating the tax districts of the Josephine Community Library, the Baker County Library District, and other tax districts in Oregon that fund public libraries has led Ostberg and committee members to pursue creating a special tax district that would make the Grant County Library independent of the county and create a reliable and sustainable funding.

The measure to create the district would be on the May 2026 ballot. If voters approve it, the library will not start collecting revenue until November 2026.

Ostberg hopes the county could fund the library for another five months, from the time the library’s current budget runs out in June 2026 until the tax district kicks in.

“We hope [the county court] will work with us for the next year and a half,” Ostberg said. “We can get it done.”

During the public hearing, David Kebler, a Prairie City resident and chair of the Save Our Library Committee, read a letter announcing the committee’s existence to the public and detailing the work the committee is doing to keep the library open.

Sponsor

“We ask for collaboration,” he said to the county court members.

More than one resident reminded the court’s members they were elected to represent the county’s citizens. “As elected officials, we trust you to find what is important to our community and find ways to budget,” Nina Day said. 

After the hearing, Hamsher, the county judge, told Oregon ArtsWatch he was sure alternative funding would be found for the library before the October public hearing.

“I’ve been working on a deal to fund it without any General Fund dollars,” Hamsher said, declining to go into detail “before it’s a done deal.” He did say he is in active contact with Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, as well as with Rep. Cliff Bentz, who represents Grant County.

“He really is trying to find a solution,” Ostberg said.

Surprised somewhat by the hearing’s turnout, Hamsher said, “there’s a silent majority out there” supportive of the library. Saying the library plays a huge role in the community, Hamsher said that, rather than close the library, he wants to see it open more hours, including in evenings and weekends. “There are so many working parents that need a safe place to send their kids,” he said.

Prior to the hearing, Ostberg worried the county court would vote to defund the library immediately after the Oct. 22 public hearing. But the outpouring of support during this week’s meeting, the number of signatures on the petition, and the rapid coalescence behind the Save Our Library Committee makes her cautiously optimistic — and determined.

Sponsor

“Next step is, I have to get serious,” she said, about creating a detailed budget of the library’s operational expenses, which will determine how much money a special tax district has to generate each year. 

Time is the library’s “biggest obstacle,” Ostberg said. 

Noting the county’s poverty rate and other challenges, Stephanie Thompson, who authored the petition to keep the library open, said, “We should be working to create a better future for our kids.”

“We need time to find a solution,” she said. “We need more time.”