Local News

The Josephine County Board of Commissioners and Josephine Community Library District have traded dueling press releases as an impasse over lease negotiations for the Grants Pass branch continues.

On Wednesday, the local library district issued a press release stating that it did not cancel a lease negotiation meeting scheduled for this morning. It said it would attend the 10:30 a.m. meeting and if the Board did not show up, a press conference would be held outside the Anne G. Basker Auditorium

Later in the day, the Board of Commissioners issued a press release stating that it needed "to clear the record on a few items." It said it initially agreed to meet with the district today, but library leaders requested the meeting be held in executive session in the Commissioners conference room.

The Board said it received correspondence from the library board's legal counsel on Monday stating that he did not think today's scheduled meeting would "bear any fruit" or "be very efficient." After the library district publicly noticed today's meeting, the Commissioners said they would be unable to meet this morning.

The Board said it had planned to schedule a meeting with the JCLD Board this afternoon, but it appears that this will have to be done at a later date.

Commissioner Chris Barnett called it "a bummer" and said they just wanted to keep the conversation on the lease moving forward. He said he hopes they can have good and productive discussions in the future.