The Columbia County Law Library is in need of $50,000 and the county is investigating ways to help. Reports the Chronicle website
County Commissioner Henry Heimuller will team up with the county district attorney and finance director to work with law librarian Brandee Dudzic to see if and how the county can assist.
Dudzic presented the library’s need for funding at the Wednesday county commission meeting, and said that $50,000 was needed to help stabilize the law library so it can advocate for more funding at the state level.
“The Columbia County Law Library is an essential service provider, unfortunately with the resources we have right now, we’re not meeting the needs of the community,” Dudzic said. The library is only open two days a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays) and one of those days it’s open for just half the day.
Dudzic said the library needs to be open for additional two days a week to better meet the needs of the community.
“Pre-COVID, the law library was running on a very lean budget,” Dudzic said. “The only source of funding for the law library is from court filing fees.”
The court fees go to the state which then disperses it back to each county depending on its population. Dudzic said one of her goals is to change the way the libraries are funded at the state level.
Until that happens, she said assistance is needed from the county to help the library continue to provide services. The services the library provides are essential, she said.
“This virus has a lot of legal issues associated with it, and people need help,” she said. Some of the services include help with the protection of children and other victims, end of life matters, estate planning, and court proceedings, including between landlords and tenants.
Three of the essential services Dudzic outlined in her written request to the county included the library’s community-based location for people to remotely log into their court hearings, weekly free court forms clinic and parenting classes for divorcing parents. Parenting classes are required under Columbia County’s Supplement Court Rules for divorcing parents.
“What I’m asking from you is a temporary and one-time ask so I can do the work I need to do in order to advocate for more funding,” Dudzic said.
Heimuller requested more information about the existing state funding to ensure county taxpayers weren’t paying for something meant to be funded by the state, and suggested that funding could be worked into the district attorney’s budget or come from federal COVID-19 relief money.
The commission agreed to revisit the topic at a later date.
“We’re leaving it open; it’s not a ‘no,’ it’s not a ‘yes,’ its’ a ‘We’re committed looking at the program and figuring out if we have resources to help and collect more data,’” Commissioner Alex Tardif said.
