The library board in the northwest Iowa community of Alta is “regrouping” after 60% of voters rejected a $1.25 million bond measure to build a new library.
“We put in about two years worth of work trying to find a good location and we had it narrowed down to a new facility in the park area,” Bruce Hinkeldey, chair of the Alta Library Board, said. “We thought it was a great plan, but, you know, the public voted.”
For over 20 years, the public library and the school library in Alta operated in shared space to save money, but a state law passed in 2023 forced school libraries to remove books with content that describes or depicts sex acts. The Alta Public Library is currently operating out of the city’s VFW hall, but nearly half of its books and other materials have been put in storage.
The bonding plan called for building a new library in the city park, at a cost of 65 cents for every thousand dollars of taxable property valuation. “If it were one general reason why people voted no, that would be a little bit easier to deal with,” Hinkeldey said, “but we’ve got several reasons.”
Hinkeldey said some voters opposed the tax increase, others opposed the location and some voters want an existing building repurposed as the city’s library.
(Reporting by Audrey McIrvin, KICD, Spencer)