Good News for Conifer Library Patrons!
The Jefferson County Public Library Board of Trustees included $2.5 million in its 2023 budget for Conifer! The trustees approved the budget on June 16, and it now goes to the county commissioners for final approval.
The trustees have not yet determined how the funds will be used. The first step will be a comprehensive community engagement plan to get feedback from Conifer residents about our library preferences. Conifer Area Council (CAC) has been actively working with the library staff and board to express our community needs and will continue its involvement. CAC has invited the library to make presentations at the upcoming town hall meetings this fall and to distribute information through our email list. In addition, the library has been invited to include questions in our upcoming 2022 Comprehensive Community Survey. CAC has also invited the Board of Trustees and library executives to take a tour of the area.
At this time, the library board and staff have not made a decision about whether the library will remain in Conifer High School. One concern with the current location is that high school hours are changing in 2023, meaning the library wouldn’t be available to the public until 4:15 p.m. on school days. In response to a question from the board, library staff noted that “the amount for the project is based on an expectation that we will find space in an existing commercial build for tenant finish or a building refurbish.”
After the community engagement process is complete, the library staff will develop a proposal with pricing options and make a recommendation to the Board of Trustees about how to proceed.
Please stay tuned and participate in the community engagement process to make your voice heard!
Expanded summer hours!
In response to community requests, the Conifer Library has expanded hours this summer while the high school is not in session. Summer hours are:
Monday-Tuesday 10am-6pm
Wednesday- Thursday 12pm-8pm
Friday Closed
Saturday – Sunday 9am-5pm
We encourage you to take advantage of these expanded hours and show support for our library.
Conifer Library History
While the Conifer Library was among the first of the local libraries to join the Jefferson County Public Library system, it has never had its own facility. According to 50 Stories for 50 Years, Stories and History of the Jefferson County Public Library 1952-2002 and from Jefferson County Public Library Facilities Master Plan February 2018, the Conifer Library joined JCPL in 1954 and in 1996 moved into the new Conifer High School. All other Jefferson County Libraries have been housed in buildings owned or rented by JCPL and most JCPL libraries have been or are currently being remodeled since their purchase.
Conifer residents have a long history of support of and desire for a public library. Over the years they have sought to keep the library active and available. The 2021 library survey shows that the community’s desire has not changed, with 93% of respondents in support of a stand-alone library in Conifer.
Download a PDF of the Survey here
In 2011 the Conifer Library Committee reported that the budget for the Conifer Library was less than 1% of the JCPL budget. In 2020 it was 0.41%, despite the property tax revenue collected from Conifer being the same 4.5 mils that the rest of the county’s residents pay to support their libraries.
Decisions on budgeting partially rely on the daily count of the number of patrons visiting the library. However, the measure of the number of people at the Conifer library is distorted by the exclusion of the school-day gate count from the daily JCPL count. Students and school staff are JCPL patrons. They must have a JCPL card to check out materials and log into JCPL’s computers, website, and databases. They have all the rights and responsibilities of other patrons. Given that these are the only users allowed in the library during the school day, their numbers need to be included to give an accurate reflection of patronage.
Given the unique situation that JCPL has with sharing space in Conifer High School, additional concerns need to be considered. The safety of students prevents the community patrons from being able to visit during school hours. The current agreement between the library and school districts would leave the school with a diminished inventory if the public library were suddenly removed from the school.
CAC will continue to be a voice of our community to the Jefferson County Public Library and Conifer High School. We will work toward a solution that will benefit all parties including taking small interim steps to provide better access while pushing toward a facility that will allow the community the same access to a local library that the rest of Jefferson County has already.