Kentucky town votes down chance at first library

GRAYSON, Ky. - Roy Seagraves dropped out of school in eighth grade and pulls down $800 a week working in a factory that makes plastic bumper guards for cars.

He admits he doesn't read much and says the Bible, a set of encyclopedias and a few magazines he keeps around the house are all he really needs now that his three children are grown.

Seagraves, 50, says he and his wife, Helen, have survived just fine in this eastern Kentucky county without a library, and they don't see a need to spend tax dollars to build one now.

''Us rural people out here would benefit very little from it,'' he said, adding that he pays plenty of taxes already.

Carter County, a farming community where half the working-age people are either functionally illiterate or have minimal reading skills, is one of the few places in the nation without a public library, according to Mary Jo Lynch, director of research at the American Library Association. She estimated only 3 percent of communities are without library services.

And it's likely to stay that way.

After heated debate in this county of 25,000 residents, magistrates this month unanimously rejected a proposal to build the county's first library with a 6-cent property tax increase. It would have cost the average resident $30 a year.

''It was pretty unbelievable,'' said Mindy Woods, a mother of two who collected 2,200 signatures supporting the measure. ''Their attitude was, 'We've made up our minds. Don't confuse us with the facts.' ''

County Magistrate Carlos Wells said county residents pay plenty of taxes already, and they've done as well educationally without a library as neighboring counties have done with one.

Wells, a farmer and self-employed construction worker, said 51 percent of Carter County residents over 25 have high school diplomas.

That's better than the statewide average of about 33 percent, but Kentucky ranks last in the nation of people over 25 who have graduated from high school, according to Janet Hoover, spokeswoman for the Kentucky Workforce Development Cabinet, a state agency that provides training and job leads for unemployed workers.

Nationwide, about 75 percent of adults over 25 have high school diplomas, she said.

As many as 44 percent of Kentucky residents have modest, minimal or no functional literacy skills, according to a 1997 survey by the University of Kentucky and the state workforce agency.

Still, Wells defended the magistrates' action.

''I'm not anti-libraries,'' he said. ''After several weeks of study, I didn't find facts that we needed a public library.''

Indeed, this tidy community of well-kept homes and manicured lawns 100 miles east of Lexington doesn't look like a place with obvious educational deficiencies.

Grayson, the county seat with a population of 3,500, is home to Kentucky Christian College, which trains ministers, missionaries and teachers. All the public schools have been rebuilt or renovated in recent years at taxpayer expense.

''It's hard to sell people a product that they haven't already been using,'' said Judith Burdine, president of the state library association.

Bewildered by the opposition, library supporters are considering filing suit in an effort to reverse the vote. State law allows residents to sue to appeal decisions made by county magistrates on tax issues.

The Rev. Roy Seagraves - no relation to the man who opposed the tax - called library opponents ignorant.

''I've made a lot of people mad,'' he said. ''I tried to shock them or shame them, whatever it took. Our children are being cheated.''

The nondenominational minister said most residents would have paid less for the tax than they do for a carton of cigarettes or one fill-up at the gas station.

Judith Gibbons, director of field services for the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives, also was disappointed.

''It's a sad testimony when you look at a community and see that a public library is not valued,'' she said.

Besides raising reading levels of adults, Gibbons said, libraries have a dramatic effect on early childhood education and help attract industries.

In Carter County, unemployment is nearly 10 percent, more than twice the national average, and elections are won and lost on promises of bringing in jobs. The largest private employer is a ham packing plant with 300 workers.

Woods said she pushed for the library because she wanted a quiet place where her children could check out books and study.

Now she has to drive them to a library in Ashland, 45 minutes away.

''I spent a lot of happy hours in the library when I was growing up,'' she said. ''I'd like my children to have the same opportunity.''