Letters to the editor
Published 1:30 am Wednesday, March 11, 2026
What are you passionate about? What is your passion?
Right now, I am passionately hating daylight savings time. Saturday morning I set my clocks ahead the required hour a full day ahead of time just to offset the shock of tomorrow. It will not really help, but is worth trying even to partially defeat some drama.
Additionally, I am totally dismayed about recent events in Timberland Regional Library; the idea of losing 50 librarians and having any branch be automated to self service is horrific to me. County by county, big and small communities use their libraries. Librarians are the heart of the library. They provide the service the patrons so regularly seek.
I am in the library weekly. Checking out materials is just one service: DVDs, as well as books. Just browsing around the shelves in the young adult or even children’s book is a timely entertainment. However, almost every visit was benefited by the presence of a person, the librarian or library assistant: accessing the catalog, assistance with the computer programs, running the printers, placing a hold request. Also, and not least, but in Aberdeen to use the bathroom one has to acquire the key from the librarian-helper. Public bathrooms are located widely apart; I so appreciate the library’s central location. Yes, it is a key, not a code to get inside. Keeping it open and clean obviously requires a person’s management.
Timberland runs itself. It is not a government agency. It was explained that the top salary earners were given a raise when the budget was interpreted to have the money to allocate. At a later date, the budget figures showed that the system could not afford the raises without cuts in other places. Find another way. Rescind the raises temporarily.
We take it for granted that the services are well known throughout the regional system and appreciated by every age and economic status of citizens. “Free people, free libraries.” Please reconsider balancing your budget by another option.
Keep the librarians. They run the systems for us all and it will not function appropriately without them.
My passion for Timberland libraries is not equal to my dislike for daylight savings time. Libraries are essential for all seasons and daylight savings is momentary in comparison. Shock, dismay, disbelief is so much more unsettling than sluggish grumpiness due to an hourly change.
Jan Walberg
Aberdeen
John Hughes thanked for library column
I learned to love a library as a five year old girl growing up in Forks, as a mother in Hoquiam sharing that joy with my children and as a grandmother introducing my grandchildren to libraries in the Olympia area.
Now, as a member of Montesano Friends of the Library, I want to express m gratitude to John Hughes for his passionate and poignant defense and necessity of a fully functioning library, complete with a librarian and supportive staff something the Timberland Regional Libraries Board deems not near as important as their raises. This whole budget deficit needs to be investigated and adjusted to hold the TRL Board accountable and assure that, we, the taxpayers have access to our vital and beloved libraries and staff.
Kerri Neathery
Montesano
