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Residents urge council to treat Madison Library as critical county infrastructure
Summary
During public comment, residents and a library advocate told the council the Madison Library serves thousands of residents daily and asked councilors to consider the library when making budget choices; the speaker cited nearly 5,000 active library card holders and daily attendance of 150–200 people.
During the public-comment period, residents urged the Jefferson County Council to consider the library an essential piece of county infrastructure when evaluating budget trade-offs.
One commenter thanked council members for the opportunity to observe budget workshops and urged them to "view the library as critical Jefferson County infrastructure." Another speaker, Megan Bridal, told councilors the county has "almost 5,000 library card holders" and that the Madison Library averages "150, 200 people" visiting daily in summer months; she said many library users rely on public computers, notary services and programs, and that library cards expire after two years of inactivity so the card-holder count represents active users. Council members thanked the speakers and said they would take public comments into account during budget deliberations.
The chair thanked speakers for participating and reminded commenters of the three-minute rule and a county attorney note to avoid discussing topics tied to ongoing litigation (data-center matters), which the county attorney had advised the council to avoid during public comment.
