CACHE COUNTY – Library activist Hannah Wertz Mortensen is calling on all friends of the Cache County Library to attend a public meeting focusing on the future of that facility on Wednesday, Mar. 4.
That gathering of new members of the Library’s Board of Directors is scheduled to be held at 5 p.m. at the Cache County Historic Courthouse.
“I will be presenting a plan to help preserve and grow the (county) library,” Mortensen announced in a Mar. 1 post on Facebook.
“Things are moving fast and we need all the eyes and ears we can get,” she added. “This will be an officials county meeting and there will be no availability for public comment. However, being there says volumes.”
The fate of the Cache County Library located at 15 North Main Street in Providence has been up in the air since autumn of 2025.
Among the budget cuts proposed by Cache County Executive George Daines for 2026 last October was defunding the library, which would result in budget saving for the county of $250,000 a year.
After a public outcry, the members of the Cache County Council approved a compromise in December that funded the library operations for the first six-months of 2026 while alternative funding sources were considered.
Since that reprieve was announced, Mortensen has been working with County Library Brynnan Sainsbury and members of the library’s previous board of directors to save the facility.
As part of that effort, a independent, non-profit “Friends of the Cache County Library” group has been created; more than 40 serious individuals have volunteered; and, fundraising events through partnerships with business and organization were explored.
But recent developments seem to indicate that the possibility of voluntary alternative funding for the library is not being given a fair chance, according to Mortensen.
At the meeting of the Cache County Council on Feb. 10, Daines recommended appointments replacing five previous voting members of the County Library Board.
Those appointments included Mayors Kathleen Alder of Providence, Blake Wright of River Heights and David Hair of Millville; Laura Smith, the city librarian in Richmond; and Jesse Elman, the city librarian in Mendon.
County Council member Mark Hurd, who previously served as a voting member of the library board, will continue to serve as a non-voting ex-officio member.
The motive for those appointments seems to be that 70 percent of Cache County Library business comes from the cities of Providence, River Heights and Millville, all of which have chosen not to fund their own municipal libraries, along with Paradise and Hyde Park.
Mortensen also argues that recent comments by Daines to the effect that “the future of the library is up to them,” referring to the mayors and citizens of those cities, are premature in her opinion.
Mortensen believes that the county’s offer in December was to fund the library for six more months and then reconsider an extension, not to end the library’s funding at that point.
“Either this county board has already made a decision about funding or the executive is not honoring their statements,” she said.
Either of those situations is troubling to Mortensen, because that ambiguity has stymied planning and stalled fundraising efforts.
“Given that (the Cache County Library) is a publicly funded service,” agrees Jeanell Sealy, a Providence council member who previously represented that city on the library board, “it is important that the public have an opportunity to ask questions and weigh in.
“Informed choices strengthen public trust,” she adds, “and libraries are a clear reflection of how a community values education, access to knowledge and lifelong learning.”
Local residents willing to join the effort to save the Cache County Library are urged to contact Mortensen at FriendsofCacheCountyLibrary@gmail.com
The Cache County Historic Courthouse is located at 199 North Main Street in Logan.