The Alliance Public Library is open to all. Until now, library cards are free and you can check out up to twenty books at one time. The City of Alliance has decided to put a twenty-five dollar fee on library cards, only for people who live out of town. If you live outside of the city limits, this new rule affects you.

Val Bell, a resident of Alliance, lives five miles out of town. “ I don’t have a problem with the city charging for library cards,” said Bell, “ only if they charge everybody. Mainly because the farmers helped build the library.” Before the city set this new verdict, the Bell family used their free library card either once a month or every other month depending on what was going on. When the changes happen, Val said that she would rather go to the Scottsbluff library, get the information she needs, and spend a whole day and money up there, then pay for a library card that might not get used all the time. “ The problem at hand affects my household because I will have to travel further in order for my kids to do research papers and things like that in the future,” declares Bell. The situation should be for everyone. “I think that if they put a price on, they need to put the price on everyone.”

Living out of town is not a problem for Judy Messersmith. In years past when the library was at the Carnegie Arts Center, they charged everybody one or two dollars. “ I think that everybody should be treated equally,” says Messersmith, “ We are all residents. For the library to charge people that live out of town is going to discourage the out of town people that come here and spend money while their kids are at the library to not come anymore and go somewhere else.” Judy and her husband have a business in which they collect sales taxes to help the city. Most of their customers live outside of town and they would hate to loose them to other cities because the city is leaving them out. “I have several mothers that say to me that they will go to Scottsbluff and Chadron and we all know that they will spend money and spend more when they have to return the books in a matter of weeks,” explains Messersmith, who  is determined that the library card situation is a mess. The solution to this ‘mess’ according to Mrs. Messersmith is for there to be no fee, for anyone. “This town needs to encourage people to come to Alliance, no matter what.”

The Alliance Public Library’s Mission Statement reads: “The Alliance Public Library will provide resources and services in a variety of formats that will assist card holding patrons and guests to meet informational, cultural, recreational, and educational needs of the entire community in an atmosphere that is welcoming, respectful, and professional.” Even though the people who live outside of town pay for library cards, the city assures us that the people in town still are paying taxes toward the library. The citizens of Alliance pay an average of $41.60 per household annually to support the library. As this may be, this is why the city is charging only out of town people for library cards. The fee for the cards goes to help the funding as the library well as the taxes from in town residents. JD Cox, the city manager, says “I think most folks understand that there is a cost to everything.  The question is: how do we pay for those costs?   For years, the citizens of Alliance have bore the entire expense of the library.  I also believe that most folks understand that we work hard to achieve fairness and transparency in all that we do.  Although the $25 fee – for an entire year’s usage — is not as much as the Citizens of Alliance pay through taxes, I agree with the library board that this is a very fair measure.” The town of Alliance is at a disagreement, but the fact is that nothing is going to change. The rules are already set in motion and the wheels are turning.