Residents urge county to sign Grants Pass Library lease as commissioners say talks continue

Speakers at the Sept. 25 Josephine County Board of Commissioners meeting pressed the board to finalize a lease agreement with the Grants Pass Library, while commissioners responded that the county is negotiating and is not moving to evict the library.

The library district’s annual report, read into the record by Nancy Lester of Grants Pass, highlighted system use and programming. Lester said the district checked out “almost 300,000 physical books plus almost 62,000 electronic materials,” has “almost 26,000 active library cards,” and ran 523 children’s programs attended by more than 21,000 people. She also said the 2025 summer reading program engaged 883 participants who “collectively logged more than 535,000,” which she said is “over 8,900 hours of reading.”

Lester urged the commissioners to approve a lease the…