Tag Archives: Craighead County Jonesboro Public Library

Committee adopts interlocal agreement for Craighead County-Jonesboro Public Library

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Agreement maintains shared expenses for library

Delta Digital News Service

Wednesday, February 21, 2023

By Laila Casiano | Contributor 

JONESBORO, Ark. – The Public Service Committee of the Craighead County Quorum Court adopted an interlocal agreement between Craighead County and Jonesboro concerning the management and supervision of the Craighead County Jonesboro Public Library., Monday, Feb. 12.

     The agreement maintains shared expenses for the Craighead County Jonesboro Public Library, solidifying terms and shared finances for the benefit of all citizens. This contractual arrangement supports the local library by assisting in maintenance and operations of the public library systems. Additionally, the committee adopted an ordinance between Craighead County and Poinsett County regarding library services.

     “The committee essentially examined an agreement with Poinsett County and the city of Jonesboro to operate the library within a regional library setting that updates every five years,” District 13 Officer Kevin Williams said.

“The committee essentially examined an agreement with Poinsett County and the city of Jonesboro to operate the library within a regional library setting that updates every five years.”

District 13 Officer Kevin Williams

    Last fall, between Thanksgiving and Christmas, Craighead County Judge Marvin Day received an email from the public library staff requesting an update on the Interlocal Agreement between Craighead and Poinsett County. Day received a copy of the public library’s financial statement and noted the Craighead County Public Library was following an outdated Interlocal Agreement from 1941.

     Day forwarded the financial records to Craighead County Attorney Kimberly Dale, and they were advised regarding issues in the language initially passed between Craighead County and Poinsett County. 

     The interlocal agreement between Jonesboro and Craighead County needs renewal and passage every five years, according to a new state law requiring agreements not to last more than five years without renewal or appropriate acknowledgment by governing bodies. Their attorney then began drafting a “bare-bones” ordinance.

     “More than anything, we are trying to keep it as apolitical, non-political, as possible,” Day said. “We are just following state statutes and agreeing to partner with the city of Jonesboro or Poinsett County, however that may be, to provide these services for the people.”

     Day reassured the committee that nothing will change, and that the agreement will essentially bring the Interlocal Agreement up to current state code. Regarding how things are run or how the library decides to govern itself, Day reiterated they are not attempting to change anything.

     “Let’s just bring it up to the current codes and move forward,”  Day said. “If someone wants to change something in the future, that’s great, but as of right now, we are doing the bare minimum of what we need for the agreement.”

     The county and city will consider the capital contributions of each entity. They aim to establish the benefits of the library to its citizens and take legislative steps to ratify the agreement, effective from January 1, 2024, to December 31, 2027.

     “At the end of the day, it’s an agreement between us,” said chair of the Public Service Committee and District 7 Officer Richard Rogers. “The library runs its own board to manage its own affairs, so it doesn’t fall on our lap.”

     In other business, the quorum court:

  • Approved the road report for January 2024.
  • Approved a resolution expressing Craighead County’s willingness to utilize Federal-Aid monies for Highway 49/ County Roads 792 and 960 improvements.
  • Approved the annual report of the Hot Check program from the deputy’s prosecuting attorney’s office, pursuant to Arkansas Code Annotated (ACA) 16-21-120(c).
  • Honored Barbara Weinstock, District 5 officer, for her 27 years of service as Justice of the Peace.

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 Laila Casiano

 Laila Casiano is a junior in the multimedia journalism program in the School of Media and Journalism at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro. She can be reached at: laila.casiano@smail.astate.edu

NOTE: Featured photo shows from left, Public Service Committee Service members, Craighead County Judge Marvin Day; District 1 Officer Brad Noel; District 7 Officer and chair of the committee Richard Rogers; District 14 Officer Linda Allison; District 13 Officer Kevin Williams.

Craighead County Jonesboro Public Library celebrates Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month

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Library sponsored children’s author Thanhhà Lai for a talk, Q&A,

By Avery Jones | Editor

Delta Digital News Service

June 6, 2023

JONESBORO, Ark. – On the weekend of May 19 through 20, the Craighead County Jonesboro Public Library celebrated Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. The Friends of the Library sponsored children’s author Thanhhà Lai for a talk, Q&A, and book signing from 5:30-7 PM. She also did a presentation earlier in the day for students.

 Lai discussed her books and how they connect to her life as a child when she fled the Vietnamese War with her family. She signed copies of her newest book, When Clouds Touch Us, published this month. It’s the sequel to her highly successful first book, Inside Out & Back Again, published in 2011.

The library hosted the Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Festival from 10 AM – 2 PM on the front lawn. Many crafts and food vendors came to celebrate, and the library gave away free copies of When Clouds Touch Us. International students from ASU-Jonesboro kicked off the festival with a drum performance, and later, there was karate lessons, a cosplay contest, and a tai chi demonstration.

A variety of arts and crafts vendors attended, including art, jewelry, cosmetics, and clothes designers. Almost all of the vendors were small businesses local to Arkansas. 

Marissa Clark from True North Designs featured her artistic engravings. She does her work with laser engravers and has been doing engravings for three years. She has enjoyed drawing and working with wood since she was young, however. 

She has her own shop and can engrave any design and customize anything of any material. A few of the items featured at her stand included home decor, wall hangings, and earrings.

A tai chi demonstration by the East Arkansas Area Agency on Aging during the AAPI Festival at the library. Photo by Avery Jones

Chenoa Summers of Anthropocenic Art was there to display her paintings. The name is in reference to how her artwork reflects the current period of the Earth whereas her earlier work mostly focused on prehistoric animal life. 

Summers is a biologist who likes to paint the nature that she studies. She has three degrees in science and is currently working on a biology degree. She mostly does watercolor paintings but also crochets. She primarily sells her work online.

Britni from Rosemore Creative displayed her homemade cosmetic and hygienic products. She sells facial care, bath salts and bombs, wax melts, candles, hand and body soap, among other things. 

She’s been coming to the library’s festivals for many years, but previously sold bags and other crochet crafts. She wanted to expand the kind of products she made, so she started teaching herself to make hygienic and cosmetic products last year. She primarily sells online.

Glitter Critter Studios was selling handmade clothes, earrings, stickers, and more. Their designs were very colorful and bright, almost cartoon-like. 

Heather, one of the artists, said that her work is inspired by things from her childhood and also the exotic animals she rescues in her spare time. She has been a professional freelance artist for the past five years.

Glitter Critter Studios is an artist collective studio made up of three friends, including Heather, located in Memphis. This was their first time in Arkansas and first time at one of the library’s festivals.

Another designer, Alexandra of Xandra Page Co., displayed her handmade jewelry. She started making and selling her jewelry in 2020, looking for a creative outlet during the COVID-19 pandemic, but she’s been crafty from a young age and is self-taught.

Right now, Xandra Page Co. has turned into a full-time job for her. She also has a graduate degree in English but is enjoying where she’s at for the moment. She primarily sells online and also at some festivals. 

There were also some organizations there to represent themselves. The International Students Association from ASU-Jonesboro were there to talk about the kind of opportunities they offer for international students. This is the first time the association has been to the library’s festival, but they’ve been to lots of other events to represent and promote themselves.

They help to bring together international students on campus through various activities so that they can connect with others they have something in common with, get to know each other’s cultures, and become more comfortable in a culture that’s new to them.

The three international students from the association at the festival—Nihal, Mahita, and Pauline–showcased the diverse interests of the association, one being a computer science major, one a wildlife conservation major, and one having just graduated with a master’s in psychology, respectively.

A nonprofit organization called The Reform Alliance was also in attendance. Their focus is education equity for K-12 students in Arkansas. 

They raise awareness for all types of education options, including public, private, homeschool, and microschool. They also offer scholarships.

There were also a few food vendors there, such as Spice Girls Thai Street Food which soft-opened just this May. The food truck is an offshoot of the Sai Thai restaurant which closed in April. Spice Girls’ official grand opening will be June 1.

According to Valerie Carroll from Friends of the Library, the Craighead County Library hosts two festivals per year, and they choose a different theme each time. This is the first time AAPI Month has been the theme.

“I think that some of the folks from the Multicultural Committee are probably here at the event, but they do have a new committee where they’ve been trying to do some different things to widen out the cultural net, bring in some more people, and teach people who are here about different cultures,” Carroll said.

Avery Jones 

Avery Jones is a sophomore in the Department of English and Philosophy at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro. She can be reached at: avery.jones@smail.astate.edu

Note: Feature photo by Avery Jones 

Library Patrons show support during Read-In

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Voters will decide on Nov. 8 whether or not to reduce library funding

By Avery Jones | Editor

Delta Digital News Service

JONESBORO, Ark. – On the Nov. 8 ballot, during the general election, voters will decide whether or not the Craighead County Jonesboro Public Library’s tax millage should be cut in half. Recently, more than a hundred library patrons gathered to silently protest the potential tax cut at a community event called, ‘Support Our Library Read-In.’ The streets and parking spaces surrounding the library were crowded with vehicles as patrons gathered on the front lawn as well as along sidewalks during the early evening of Monday, Oct. 10, 2022. 

A petition was presented to the Craighead County Clerk on September 27 to advocate for reducing the mills of county property tax from 2 to 1, which would significantly cut the funding of the library. 

The petition was proposed by a local political group known as Citizens Taxed Enough, who are upset about the amount of funds that the library receives from taxes.

Since the proposal was presented, there has been much controversy over the validity and effectiveness of the potential tax cut. Those against the motion argue that the cut would force the library to reduce many of its programs and community outreach activities and that the average person wouldn’t save that much in taxes from the change.

“I think [the tax cut] would affect the library’s ability to do what it does now drastically…half the employees, half the programs, half the services, half the branches available to people,” said Rebecca Mixon, who sits on the Friends of the Library board.

Mixon went on to say that many people don’t realize just how many services the library provides.

 “It’s one of the only places in our community where you can go for the day and be in a heated and cooled environment and not spend anything,” Mixon said. “You could sit and make yourself better at the same time. That just doesn’t exist anywhere else in our community.”

“It’s one of the only places in our community where you can go for the day and be in a heated and cooled environment and not spend anything,” Mixon said. “You could sit and make yourself better at the same time. That just doesn’t exist anywhere else in our community.”

Rebecca Mixon, Friends of the Library Board Member

Some of the programs that the library offers are after-school activities for kids, free classes, summer activities, and outreach to public schools and nursing homes.

Dawn Morgan and Hope, frequent patrons of the library, said that they take advantage of many of the library’s programs and support everything the library does for the community. Morgan’s children enjoy the children’s library section of the library as well as the after-school crafts. 

Morgan herself has been attending the Jonesboro library since she was a teenager, when she also was in a young adult book discussion group. 

In addition, her grandmother, who is retired, enjoys the knitting classes and often comes to the library because she feels safe there. 

One library program that is especially vital to Morgan’s family is the craft fair. Morgan owns a small business, and one of the places she sells her products is at the fair.

“Without the craft fair, my small business would probably not exist. We honestly get the best turnout of anywhere here at the library,” Morgan said.

According to Chelsea Young, a 7th grade English teacher at Nettleton Junior High School, the literacy rates of children in Arkansas are currently at the lowest she has seen in her 10 years as a teacher. 

“The library means so much to the community in terms of increasing the ability to read,” Young said. “Nothing will increase student reading scores like independent reading.”

“The library means so much to the community in terms of increasing the ability to read,” Young said. “Nothing will increase student reading scores like independent reading.”

Chelsea Young, Nettleton Junior High School English Teacher

She believes that a variety of resources needs to be available to encourage students to read more and that reducing these resources by cutting the library’s funding would be a huge mistake. 

Not only does Young frequently use the library, she also takes advantage of the digital database and tells all of her students to sign for digital library cards as well. The library’s digital database provides resources for academic research, genealogy records, language learning, college and career preparation, and more. 

“A lot of my students live in poverty. There is a lot of poverty especially in rural districts. Even if the funding cut doesn’t affect this particular branch of the library, it will affect rural districts, which are most at risk for literacy issues,” Young said. “People in rural districts might not have access in terms of being able to walk into this library…so it’s absolutely vital and critical that people especially in rural districts have continued access to [the digital database] to increase literacy.”

According to Eric McGee, a candidate for state representative, the current funding that the library receives has allowed them to open satellite branches within the county such as in Brookland, Monette, Caraway, and Lake City. “The only reason those libraries are open is because of that funding,” McGee said.

He stated that the people that are for cutting funding to the library are misrepresenting that information.

McGee explained that the money the library receives is forward funded, which means it’s slated to be used the next year in case something happens to their current funds.

Right now, the library is operating out of last year’s budget, and the money they’re receiving now will be saved for next year, which is how they have a “surplus.”

He said that although cutting the millage would supposedly reduce taxes, the average person would only save about $1.78.

Since the actual amount saved would be so low for the average citizen, many supporters of the library value the library’s services far more than they do the money they would save in taxes.

Stinson Burton, who goes by ‘Lee’, and Katrina Baureis, both college students at Arkansas State University, said that the library is so important because it’s the only place where you can be educated for free.

“I spent a large part of my teenhood in a library,” Baureis said. “I wouldn’t be the person I am today if I didn’t have access to a library, and I think everyone deserves that same opportunity.”

“I spent a large part of my teenhood in a library,” Baureis said. “I wouldn’t be the person I am today if I didn’t have access to a library, and I think everyone deserves that same opportunity.”

Katrina Baureis, Arkansas State University Student

Burton plans to be a librarian while Baureis wants to work in a museum. Burton currently works at the Harrisburg library and explained that smaller libraries always need more funding.

“The smaller town libraries in the region will be negatively affected because a lot of them are run by a handful of people and their cities don’t have a lot of money [for] their libraries to begin with,” Burton said. “The Jonesboro Library supplements a lot of that and without that, that hurts the whole region, not just this library.”

Erika Askeland, who had set up a voter registration booth, said that the petition for the funding cuts was occurring because of the politicians who had taken issue with the LGBTQ+ pride display set up at the library more than a year before. 

Askeland attended several library board meetings, and said that Rep. Brandt Smith (R-Jonesboro) and Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Jonesboro) promised that if LGBTQ+ materials weren’t removed, they would bring the issue to a vote. 

“I feel like it’s just them following through with what they said, and at this point, they turned it into a funding issue,” Askeland stated. “They’re really, really hoping for the voters to stay misinformed in an effort to cut funding.”

The purpose of the event at the library was for locals to show their support for the library and their disapproval of the potential tax cuts as November voting approaches.

 Crowds of people of all ages were relaxed–reading, chatting, mingling, playing, and running around. One couple was even meditating and ringing Tibetan singing bowls. Most people were set up on blankets, lawn chairs, and under tents. Cotton candy was being handed out and a bubble machine was running; a blue inflatable tube man waved about, welcoming people to the event. The diverse group of attendees displayed the value of the library had to them.

Avery Jones is a sophomore in The Department of English and Philosophy at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, Arkansas. She can be reached at avery.jones@smail.astate.edu