York County Council Votes To Reduce Library Board

YORK COUNTY – York County Council voted Monday night to reduce the York County library board from ten members to seven, removing three at-large seats. A final vote of 5-2 in favor of reducing the library board to seven members left dozens of people angry Monday night. 

Katie Rutland is with York County Community Advocates for Public Education, and she says the vote is taking away equal access to materials. 

“It’s against the constitution, it infringes on their right to access these like anybody else,” she said. 

People on the other side, who support the board reduction, are also in favor of relocating these books in question. Sylvie Carey is a York County citizen. She says they do not want the books removed, just relocated into adult section.

“We are in a free country,” she says. “We can’t censor things, but we can make sure that children don’t fall into things that can hurt them.”

The biggest question; why do this now? Some opposed to the vote think its being pushed now in order to move forward after two library board members were asked to leave due to rezoning.

“I say if it’s the right thing to do now, it’s the right thing to do in six months,” said City Councilman William “Bump” Roddey.

“It’s unfortunate, ” says Rutland, “that the council feels like they have to proceed with this when they don’t have to.”