A small town in Kern County contemplates turning its community library into a police station
Categories: US Education News
The fate of McFarland’s community library has become a hot topic of conversation in the small, agricultural town of over 14,000 just off Highway 99 in northern Kern County.City leaders have rallied around a proposal to acquire the Clara M. Jackson Branch and convert it into a revamped headquarters for its police Department. The City Council, the local district superintendent and McFarland’s Recreation and Park District director recently penned letters to the county.“With even a cursory review of the police department’s facility, it becomes glaringly obvious that the Department’s lack of space hinders them from efficiently and effectively carrying out their law enforcement duties,” wrote Aaron Resendez, superintendent of the McFarland Unified School District. When school lets out, students walk to the library and many spend their afternoons there until the library closes at 6 p.m. They worry about what will happen after school if the library disappears.Currently, every branch in San Francisco is open five to seven days a week, but in Kern County, most branches are open two or three days a week. The central Bakersfield library is the only branch open five days a week.The discrepancy in funding between library systems is a consequence of the fact that California’s 1,130 public libraries are funded almost entirely locally. Last year, local governments provided 94% of California public libraries’ $1.84 billion. Federal and state contributions typically come in the form of grants for targeted programs. On a Friday afternoon, the McFarland library is bustling. Branch supervisor Frank Cervantes shows patrons how to make jester hats. Children wander the stacks. Young patrons pepper the reference desk with questions. Two boys get help to find a copy of “Sideways Stories from Wayside School.” Toddlers play in a kitchen set. The computers are full. A young girl receives tutoring at a back table. As the arts and crafts program winds down, Cervantes announces that it’s storytime, and patrons gather to listen.Locals haven’t forgotten this history, and there’s skepticism about new leadership. The petition to save the library, started by Elias Ahumada, states, “Rewarding a police department, with a long history of corruption, with the city’s only public library is disgraceful and negligent.” Ahumada grew up in Wasco and Delano, communities on either side of McFarland. They are home to the Wasco State Prison, North Kern State Prison and Kern Valley State Prison. In 2020, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility opened in McFarland — the deal with the private contractors brings revenue into the city.Schools won’t allow just any adult to come onto campus to visit the library, Corr said. School libraries typically aren’t open for students late after school, during breaks and in the summer. And Natalie, 9, has one big complaint about her school library: she’s only allowed to check out two books at a time.