Dalton garden club tour brings outpouring of library support
GPLS News, June 2009
Rep. Roger Williams (left) accepts a framed READ poster produced by Northwest Georgia Regional Library from Director Joe Forsee.
Joe Forsee, director of the Northwest Georgia Regional Library, didn't anticipate that a tour of the Dalton-Whitfield Library he gave to members of a local garden club would result in an increase in local per capita funding, but it did. It also brought a wave of positive local publicity for the system's headquarters facility.
As Forsee explained, when members of a Dalton-area garden club toured the library in late 2008, they were surprised to learn how dependent the library is on local funding. Club member Joann Williams, an ardent library supporter, began a grassroots movement to increase local library funding by the Dalton City Council and by the Whitfield County Board of Commissioners.
A strong showing of Whitfield County citizens, including members of the garden club, the Friends of the Dalton-Whitfield County Library, library board members and library foundation board members, attended a Dalton City Council meeting to advocate for increased funding for the library. Williams and her husband, Rep. Roger Williams (R-Dalton), addressed the mayor and council, Forsee said, and spoke eloquently on the subject of per capita funding, noting that the county ranks well below the state average in local funding and that the county also ranks among the lowest in the state in college graduates.
Mayor David Pennington invited Mrs. Williams and Forsee to meet with him and then County Commission Chair Brian Anderson to discuss public library funding. Pennington indicated that the City Council considered public library services to be important to its citizens and pledged his support.
As a result, Mayor Pennington's proposed 2009 city budget includes an increase of approximately 14 percent for the operation of the library. In a difficult budget year for the Whitfield County Board of Commissioners, the library also received a one-time increase. It was one of only a few county agencies that did not experience a budget reduction.