A festering problem remains at Timberland Regional Library
Timberland Regional Library administration is once again betraying the confidence of the library patrons in their service area.
If you remember in 2018 TRL wanted to close a number of libraries including Montesano and Hoquiam. Then two years ago TRL not only proposed but turned the Naselle library into a non-staffed library. Between those dates and now, TRL has refreshed libraries from Pacific County to Lewis County including libraries in Grays Harbor, Thurston, and Mason counties. Some of those refreshes are excellent, I especially like the one in Westport. However, some libraries like the ones in Ilwaco, Naselle and Raymond look gutted with up to half of their collection gone.
Now we are being told that TRL will have to layoff 30 staff members and turn even more libraries into libraries without staff because they suddenly discovered at the end of January a $3.5 million dollar deficit in the 2026 budget.
However, in November TRL felt they were doing so well fiscally that the director recommended to the board of TRL board of Trustees a 15% raise for the top two administrators below her. How does such mismanagement happen overnight? TRL says it is because their fiscal year did not end until Jan. 31, 2026. At that time, they discovered that they had spent more money in 2025 than they should have. Why? A wise man does not consider a project without considering the cost.
I propose that the three top administrators have an immediate 30% reduction in pay. This would mean that the 15% pay raise approved in November would be rescinded and those two individuals will receive a 15% reduction in pay. The board of trustees approved it, they can rescind it.
Also, TRL needs to stop these refreshes on their libraries.
I also propose that everyone of the five counties call their Board of Trustee members in and grill them on what is going on inside of TRL.
Additionally, the comptroller and the three top individuals need to be questioned regarding this reckless spending habit that TRL has acquired over the last decade.
On top of that, there needs to be an independent audit of TRL’s financial house over the last decade. This problem did not suddenly show up overnight, it is a problem that has been festering for some time.
Lilly Pomeroy
President
Friends of the WH Abel Memorial Timberland Library
Montesano
Pe Ell dam a boondoggle
Talk of the proposed mega-dam on the Chehalis River has dominated the local news, and local conversation too. And that’s for good reason.
Hundreds of Chehalis Basin residents, from Centralia to Aberdeen to Boistfort raised their voices at recent public meetings. These were diverse voices, from representatives from the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis, the Quinault Indian Nation, to farmers, fishers, and lots of other residents.
At all the meetings except for Boistfort, the great majority of the voices were raised in unity: no mega-dam. It’s hideously expensive, it will destroy our fish runs, dewater the river, and won’t solve our flooding challenges.
In real talk: this boondoggle will benefit the wealthy developers who want to keep building in the floodplain. It won’t protect us from floods coming from the Cascade foothills, and it won’t help those of us who live downstream of Chehalis and Centralia.
Building this enormous concrete boondoggle would siphon billions away from the solutions that work, that protect more people and land, and that bring our salmon back and honor the treaties with the tribes. We can’t afford it.
So let’s keep raising our voices, talking to our families, friends and neighbors about what will really work to protect people and fish runs.
The era of dam building is over as communities around the state and across the country take dams down because the cost they inflict on clean water, communities, fish and wildlife is just not worth it.
In my community and throughout the Chehalis River Basin, we need durable, affordable, smart solutions for Mother Nature’s challenges – not a mega-dam.
Lee First
Twin Harbors Waterkeeper
Rochester
