I’m glad that the $50 fee that the City of Danville is charging for non-residents to get a library card is about to be eliminated. However, if you just read what’s in the Danville Register & Bee article about it, you’re not getting what caused this to happen on Tuesday night. Let’s take a look at The Rest Of The Story.
Let’s start off with the article in the Danville Register & Bee. (Register & Bee article, paywall may apply unless you break through it)
City eyes dropping library non-resident fee
Last Tuesday, between the Industrial Development Authority and the Planning Commission meetings, I had some time to kill so I went around downtown looking for potential stories. I stopped in the Danville Public Library and talked with the extremely friendly staff. They told me about the promotion that they had going for National Library Card Month, so I went ahead and did a small BonusCentral feature on it right there.
Within an hour, I got feedback about the $50 fee. That’s when I said “Hey, this needs to be checked out and possibly eliminated because it’s stupid.” I asked library staff about it, and they couldn’t give me the information that I needed to find out how much money came in from the fee. So, I went back over to City Hall and stopped by Assistant Finance Director Patricia Conner’s office and she was glad to get me the amount of revenue that had been generated. By the way, it was around $8500 in fiscal year 2013, $5500 in fiscal year 2014 and $4800 in fiscal year 2015.
That’s when I realized that was a relatively trivial amount when it comes to library funding and extremely small when it comes to the city’s budget. As I’m fond of saying, “IT GOTS TO GO!”. That night, I started the lobbying process by talking to a city councilman who was very supportive of the idea. I continued the lobbying effort and formed a coalition of at least seven council members who agreed that the fee should be repealed. When I got to Tuesday’s council meeting, I talked with council members and told them that I was going to run an editorial on Wednesday morning about getting rid of the fee. Several council members said “Let’s get that done tonight in the work session”, and I was quite pleased with that. I also talked with R&B reporter Denice Thibodeau and gave her a heads-up on what was going to happen.
Yes. This repeal of the library fee had been talked about for a long time, but nothing had happened with it. the issue had became dormant again until I restarted the cause. I listened to one of SouthsideCentral’s reader’s complaints, did some investigation on the complaint and got the ball rolling on the repeal effort. In one week, this went from a reader’s problem to a solution that was agreed to by Danville City Council.
Let’s be real. I don’t expect the Register & Bee to mention my efforts in getting this done because I’m competition to them. I especially don’t expect them to mention SouthsideCentral in any form. That’s the nature of the way that they run the business.
I’m not looking for the spotlight. I’m not looking for credit. The hashtag of #BeholdThePowerOfSouthsideCentral is used for fun and games.
I just wanted you folks to know The Rest Of The Story.
I am not one bit surprised that the right man at the right time found out about this and started the process to eliminate a ridiculous fee for county or out of town residents. Thank you SC!
Thanks for the kind words. I worked on this from a “Let’s show cooperation and teamwork with Pittsylvania County” aspect because they don’t charge a fee to Danville residents.
Hey! I know who one of the comments under the black box is!
Thanks again Bruce.
This was truly my pleasure. And thanks for helping me see the problem.
Thank you, Bruce! Sometimes the light of day has this effect, of cleansing the house. What the City might think about is how much time I will spend in the Library, now…and that means money for Biscuitville nearby, and other Danville merchants. I know that money is hard to trace, but it is real, when we fill up our cars in Danville, and shop Sam’s and restaurants while making it a day, in town.
Again, thank you.
Thanks for the kind words. The library director was quite pleased with this as well.
Well actually this has been discussed for quite a while…. In an open house at the library in April Mr Vogler and Mr Buckner were asked by quite a few people to do away with the fee. So this has been a work in progress for a long time.
You’re right, and I said that in the article. My point is that it had been discussed but nothing had been done about it in that timeframe. I saw there was a problem, I investigated it and I built the coalition of votes needed to get it done… and that happened within seven days of me starting the process.
Thank you Denise. You are quite right. And up until a couple months ago, City Council had no direct authority over setting recreational fees. I made a proposal back in the summer to give Council that authority. We passed it and immediately cut the recreational facility rental fees in half. It was mentioned that night at the meeting that the library fee needed to be revisited. Unfortunately, as most folks know, other events occurred and took center stage for the next several weeks and that suggestion was lost in the shuffle. Bruce did a great job of bringing it back into sight and when he mentioned it to me I told him I supported eliminating the fee 100%. And Tuesday night, I made the proposal. Council unanimously supported it. I then asked Ken Larking to immediately put this elimination into effect so we weren’t charging any more people.
Municipalities function best when citizens are engaged and connect with their elected representatives. If we do our job correctly, we can put good ideas into action. That is what happened here. This was a great example of how government is supposed to work. Thanks for your continued involvement! -LV
#BeholdThePowerOfSouthsideCentral :p
Somebody needs to give Lee Vogler a hug because he can’t take the credit for something for once. But that ain’t stopping him from trying.
Don’t need a hug and don’t care about who gets credit. But I made the proposal that council voted on. That’s a fact. The bottom line is that it got done. That’s what matters.
we need a new library. the current one is cramped, small, dirty and junky. is it ADA complaint? elevator? I haven’t seen one. not enough parking. SUnday hours would be wonderful. even DCC LRC ( library) is open for its students on Sunday. Look at all of the empty stores in shopping centers which could be converted into a larger and wider public library. Lots of parking spaces too. This will never happen. Put it much further into the river district??? of course that is a possibility. Anywhere else? NOPE !!
I used to go all the time now I stick with County Library. A Public Library should be public.
Annexation caused the problem in the first place . Westover dr came into the city. Lots of county residents used that library. Thewestover libraey was moved. Itusedto be near coates school i think. Coates was in the county. Someone realized county people didn’t pay city taxes. They didn’t realize county people may have property, or a business in the city or that a county resident might come into the city and eat in a restaurant and pay city meals taxes. City council has been and continues to be narrow minded.
Also along Westover dr that was annexed the city hasn’t done some upgrades, updates, and maintenance as was agreed when annexation occurred. That’s another story, but the city didn’t want county residents on the city library.
Narrow minded if you ask me.
City council just made another great decision with the flag. What will that end up costing?
City is in bad shape, financially and with leadership. Danville is sinking fast. Schools are sad. The new regime is as bad or worse than the old.
You will soon see.
when does the ban get lifted? county residents can use DAnville Public Library?