Library advocates marshalling forces

By Todd C. Elliott
todd.elliott@eunicetoday.com

Supporters are marshaling their forces as Wednesday night’s St. Landry Parish Council meeting to discuss a proposed parish-wide library system nears.
A coalition of library advocates proposes the parish levy a 5.5 mill property tax to create a parish system, with the exception of Sunset, Cankton and Grand Coteau, all of which have libraries.
The tax would provide about $3 million annually, based on current property valuations.
The council meets Wednesday to consider calling a May 3 election.
Susan Fisher, special projects coordinator for St. Landry-Evangeline United Way, said the coalition has been asked to provide more information about the benefits of the proposal, noting the issue has heated up in recent days.
Some of the heat comes from the general reluctance of Eunice officials to sign on for the proposal, which would supplant the Opelousas-Eunice library now in operation, and the opinion of Don Reber, Eunice Economic Development Committee chairman, that tax money would be better spent by using it to position the parish to take advantage of a projected boom in the Southwest Louisiana petro-chemical industry.
EEDC member Dr. Anthony Baltakis, who is also a member of the parish economic development panel, thinks the projects go hand in glove.
“If we really want growth, then why can’t we do both?” he asked. “Why are we always in such dire straits? I think that we have the will, let’s do both. If we really want make changes around here, then we’ve got to do it. They ask me to be on the Eunice Economic Development Committee because they want all of my experience. Well, my experience and my gut and my education tells me that this is something that we should do.” Baltakis, a Fulbright Scholar, is a history professor at LSU Eunice.
Also out of sorts over Reber’s sentiment is Gerald Patout, director of the Arnold LeDoux Library at the university.
“If we keep doing the same things and expect different results, nothing is going to change,” said Patout in a email statement. “And the parish as a whole will fall further and further behind.
“ At the very least, if a public library systems mimics the intellectual framework or veracity of the area, in this diffused approach to providing public library services we have now, we have not compiled any intellectual capital in St. Landry Parish. And this is why our neighboring parishes have leaped ahead of us in terms of attractiveness, economic development and quality of life issues.”
“It’s okay to have a parish economic development organization (SLEIDD) and also, a specific Eunice Economic Development group, seemingly working at different strategies,” said Patout in his statement. “But it’s not okay to even propose we have a good, well-managed and financed parish public library system like 63 other parishes have?”
District Atty. Earl Taylor is among those on board with the library effort.
He said he believes that a high illiteracy rate is a contributing factor in a high crime rate.
“I think the literacy rate plays a factor in whether or not someone can get a job or not,” said Taylor. “And if you can’t get a job, then I think that you are more prone to commit crime.” He thinks a public library system promotes literacy.
Taylor said he supports and utilizes the Opelousas library, and believes that a parish-wide public library system is needed.
“I believe in it,” said Taylor. “I’m not telling people that they ought to vote for it, but I’m telling them that I’m going to vote for it if it comes up.”