STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Lee Dabney, the children’s librarian at the Hailey Public Library, looked across a room full of people Tuesday night at Hailey Town Center West and smiled.

“I wasn’t sure how many people were going to show up because an invite from the library doesn’t sound all that exciting,” she said.

But show up, they did—about four dozen in all, including Blaine County School Superintendent James Foudy and The Space Director Aaron Bronson, Hailey City Council member Juan Martinez and a plethora of volunteers with the Friends of the Hailey Public Library.

The Friends of the Hailey Library, including Sara Baldwin and Geegee Lowe, Susan Carlson and Michele Kreczkowski, got a shout-out during the presentation.

And Dabney and her cohort—Kristin Gearhart, the director of the Bellevue Library—had a task for them: “We’re hoping you and your friends might collect signatures for us so that we can put a measure to create a Big Wood River Library District on the May 2026 ballot.”

The two libraries, Dabney explained, have to go to their respective city councils every year to ask for funding. But those cities are restricted by law from growing their budgets by more than 3 percent a year.

And, with population growth, the funds are increasingly being directed towards funding more police and firefighters and addressing crumbling roads.

“When cities cut budgets, libraries are at the forefront of those cuts because everyone needs streets and firefighters,” said Gearhart, who has a $68,500 budget for the 2026 fiscal year. “So, libraries are vulnerable.”

Jon Marvel expressed his support for forming a library taxing district.

Forming a library taxing district where they could pass a levy would offer both libraries more security, she added, ensuring they can carry out their tasks and even expand hours and programming.

“We’re more than just a place where you check out books,” she said. “We’re a place for children and seniors…a cool place to go in the summer and a warm place to go in winter. We even provide food through the Hunger Coalition.

The library district would encompass an area from East Fork Road in the north to an area south of Bellevue that would border the Little Wood Reservoir Library District, which serves Picabo and Carey. The libraries need 2,000 signatures to get it on the ballot. It would take 50 percent of the votes on election day plus one additional vote to pass, said Dabney.

“We mostly affect the 83333 area, which is Hailey, and the 83313 zip code, which is Bellevue. The Community Library in Ketchum is an amazing partner, but they don’t need to be part of this district. They’re an amazing unicorn,” said Dabney, noting that The Community Library is funded by donations and revenue from the Gold Mine Thrift Store and Gold Mine Consign.

Lee Dabney and Kristin Gearhart said library taxing districts seem to be the way things are going in Idaho.

Idaho has 70 library districts, with just 30 libraries continuing to receive funding from cities, said Dabney.

“I always say libraries cover you from cradle to grave, whether you come for story time for preschoolers or for help with your computer,” she added. “And think of all the money you can save checking out books instead of buying them.  We have book clubs, a series of garden talks, and we’re always looking for how we can help serve the community. When I travel, I always go to libraries—I believe it’s a sign of a healthy community if you have a vibrant library.”

Jenny Emery Davidson the executive director of The Community Library was on hand for the gathering: “It’s necessary to strengthen the budget of these libraries in order to have a strong backbone of libraries from the Stanley Basin to Bellevue.”

Hailey resident Jon Marvel told those present that forming a library taxing district is a great idea.

Mrs. Mallory was the first librarian for the Hailey Public Library in 1919.

“And I think it will pass,” he said, adding that the same day Stanley voters approved a library district, Challis voters rejected one after the local legislator called the proposed library district communist.

The Hailey Public Library celebrated its Centennial Bash in 2019. Founded by the Hailey Civic Improvement Club in 1919, it occupied an unpretentious room in the old Idaho National Bank building at Main and West Bullion until a fire destroyed the library and all the books that had been collected in a book drive.

Within a week, the Legion Loonies Revue raised money to reestablish the library in the old assayer’s office, now the site of the Emmanuel Episcopal Church Thrift Store. The library relocated to a building now occupied by The Advocates’ Attic in 1970. And in 1994 the Friends found a space in the historic J.C. Fox Building, which the library shares today with Hailey City Hall.

With an $896,000 budget culled from city funds and grants, the library served more than 100,000 people each of the past two years, offering a few hundred educational programs. The Friends of the Hailey Library hold annual Used Book and Bake Sales to fund library needs, such as charger furniture where patrons can charge smart phones and laptops while they read.

The Bellevue Library has been hopping this summer with 65 preschoolers gathering for stories and a teenage pizza and popsicle party. The library partners with the Hailey library on weekly STEAM workshops, making kaleidoscopes, erupting Mento and Coke bottles and egg drops.

About 2,300 Bellevue residents have obtained Hailey library cards since that library’s director Lyn Drewien discontinued the $75 fee for those outside of Hailey City limits. And the two libraries have a courier service delivering books between the two cities.

“If we could get a little more money, we could add staff and keep the library open longer than four days a week,” Gearhart said.

A steering committee is being formed to determine how much the proposed library taxing district would collect. So far, the committee consists of chair Tim Keirn, Amanda Karst-Suwanrit, Kristin Gearhart, Liliana Bridge, Jenny Emery Davison, Laura Rose-Lewis and Alison Foudy.

“We have an amazing community and we are so proud of our libraries,” said Dabney. “But we can’t do it alone.”