Frustrated by the Josephine County Commissioners' perceived lack of action after the termination of the Grants Pass branch library lease in January and afraid the termination could lead to eviction, Grants Pass Friends of the Library is launching an "Eviction Watch" campaign.
The campaign will begin with a countdown clock website today, which marks 30 weeks until the end of the library's current lease agreement on December 31st. The Eviction Watch website has gone "live" at "grantspassfol.wixsite.com/gpfol."
On January 6th, the Board of Commissioners voted to terminate the Grants Pass library lease with 30 days' notice and no prior consultation with the Josephine Community Library District. The Board did not provide an explanation, indicate what it wanted, offer any lease terms, name a proposed rental rate or send a termination notice.
Despite this lack of communication, the library district responded with flexibility and transparency -- offering multiple meeting dates and submitting a formal lease renewal proposal on March 25th and May 5th.
A meeting scheduled between the Commissioners and the library district board in March was canceled. Library leaders only discovered the cancellation the night before it was set to take place because a constituent shared a message from one of the Commissioners on Facebook.
Five months after the lease was canceled, the Grants Pass Library remains in limbo while waiting for the County to act. Grants Pass Friends of the Library urges library supporters to visit the countdown site, share it broadly and keep paying attention to the Commissioners' votes and actions.
