The Josephine Community Library District is preparing to be evicted from its Grants Pass branch after it contends the county has canceled lease negotiations.
On Friday afternoon, the local library district issued a press release in which it stated "Josephine County is now making plans to evict the library from the building it has occupied since 1959."
Library officials said the unexpected shift was shared by Josephine County Legal Counsel Wally Hicks without clear reasoning or a timeline and it comes after county officials canceled a scheduled meeting with the district. They said the county has yet to reschedule or respond directly to its lease renewal proposal.
The library district has proposed a five-year renewal of the current lease at $1 per year. The rate reflects the significant public investment and community benefit including over $500,000 in building improvements since 2009. Officials said they need five more years to raise an estimated $26 million to build a new facility on land the Library Foundation owns in downtown Grants Pass.
In response to the district's formal lease proposal submitted on March 25th, Hicks stated: "At this time the county is unable to provide an answer to the library's proposal for reasons that include not knowing whether departments will need to be relocated." He further stated, "that getting this resolved ahead of the budget process has ceased to be a possibility" and that "the county is not ruling out a hypothetical scenario involving the county providing storage for library property if a move becomes necessary."
The Board of Commissioners voted 3-0 on January 6th to terminate the current lease with just 30 days' notice. In a January 8th press release, officials said the move was intended to establish a framework for a new lease -- not to evict the library. However, no progress has been made.
