Coupeville Sports

   Just one of the countless quality books you can find through your local Sno-Isle library.

I have spent a considerable chunk of my life in libraries.

Growing up in Kelso, my mom was a children’s librarian at the two-story den of books which sat nestled next to the post office, back in a time when books, and not computers, dominated the scene.

Both myself and my sister got our library cards at the earliest age possible, and we grew up emulating my mom, who almost always could be found with her nose in a book.

My dad was a window washer/carpet cleaner, and the one job he had which brought joy to my heart came over the holidays, when the library would shut down, and he would clean the joint from top to bottom.

He brought all of us along, and we got to run wild (relatively speaking) in our own personal library for two or three days.

No one to compete with us for copies of Mad Magazine or Sports Illustrated.

A chance to eat our meals in the librarian’s own personal kitchen, otherwise off limits to the public, staring out the window at 2 AM onto empty streets, except for the rare raccoon which wandered by as a train whistle sounded mournfully in the distance.

While I don’t have a similar free run in any libraries these days, I still use them, especially the Coupeville one, which sits a mile from my house, on a regular basis.

And, not to brag (well, maybe a little bit), copies of my books, “Memoirs of an Idiot” and “Bow Down to Cow Town,” are available through the Sno-Isle library system.

I believe my sister is sitting at like 47 books currently published and available in libraries, so probably shouldn’t toot my own slow-moving horn too much…

Both our parents had passed before our various books were published, but I know they would be pleased that their children added to the library system.

Though they might question whether some day I couldn’t, maybe, write about something a little more reputable.

Anyways.

This is a long way to getting around to throwing my support behind the ongoing levy push by the Sno-Isle Library systems.

And supporting the levy (ballots are due by Apr. 24), which would add a nine-cent increase to the current library operations levy (putting the total rate at 47 cents per $1,000 assessed property value), is the right thing to do.

There are no negative here, only positives.

If you vote YES, you help to:

**Maintain library staffing

**Purchase library materials

**Maintain Bookmobile service for children and seniors

**Help prepare preschoolers and students with early childhood development resources, homework help and after-school STEM classes for K-12 students

Voting no would make it much more difficult for our regional library system to continue the fine work being done, at the level it’s currently being done.

Libraries are the lifeblood of our communities, both here in Coupeville and in every town. Stand with them.

But, certainly, look deeper and see what the library system has to say for itself.

For more info, you can call Jim Hills, Sno-Isle’s Public Information Manager, at 360-651-7050 or pop over to https://www.sno-isle.org/funding/levy.

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