LIBRARY VOLUNTEERS JUST SAY NO TO DRUG TESTING

Levy County's public libraries are struggling to get books checked
out or reshelved because retirees who usually handle many of those
chores have balked at a requirement that they "pee in a cup" as part
of a mandatory drug test for all county volunteers.

"It's not like we are a high-risk group for coming in drunk or high
or stoned or whatever," said one volunteer. "This is just a
common-sense issue - why are we spending tax money to test
75-year-old grandmothers for marijuana? We should be using that money
to buy more books and computers."

The situation has gotten to the point where the pool of 55 volunteers
has dwindled to two and the number of hours worked by volunteers in
the county's five libraries plunged from 330 in September 2005 to 11
this September, according to county library records. None of the
former volunteers contacted by The Sun wanted to be publicly
identified in a story about drug-testing.

"A large part of the problem is how the test is administered - it is
an affront to some people's dignity, especially people who grew up in
another generation," said the county's library director, Bonnie Tollefson.

Most of the volunteers are between the ages of 60 and 85. Under the
county's year-old contract with First Lab, all drug tests are done on
urine samples that are collected in plastic cups while a lab employee
stands within hearing distance of the person providing the sample.

County officials said they realize that some people may find the test
intrusive.

"But our public risk management insurance says we should treat
volunteers no differently that any other employees," said Levy County
Coordinator Fred Moody. "This is just the days that we are in and we
know that there are some people who aren't happy about this, but it
is something we are requiring if anyone wants to volunteer."

Moody said the drug-testing as well as background checks required for
library volunteers are identical to what is required of all county
employees and volunteers, including dozens of unpaid firefighters and
hundreds of Community Emergency Response Team members from among the
36,000 county residents.

In Alachua County, where the library district has more than 250
employees who donate 17,500 hours a year, adult volunteers undergo a
background check, but no volunteers, adults or teens, undergo drug tests.

Levy County pays the $33 cost of testing and background checks for
all its volunteers. The process began about a year ago on an
agency-by-agency basis for current volunteers and just recently got
around to the libraries.

Tollefson, who said that as a county employee she supports the
policy, understands that a large part of the resistance is the test
the county contracted to use.

"We have a number of volunteers who are older, and I think about how
my mother - who is 83 - would react to a test like this," Tollefson
said. "She would find it degrading, be totally offended and find it
an affront to her dignity. Many of our volunteers feel the same way."

Additionally, the volunteers were initially told they needed to drive
to Gainesville to provide a urine sample at a specific medical laboratory.

"And I told them that the only way I am going to be driven into
Gainesville these days is in an ambulance," said a former volunteer.
"When you get to be my age, driving in that much traffic is a hazard
to me and everybody around me."

To overcome the transportation concerns, the county arranged for the
testing to be done at each of the county's five public libraries
later this month.

Moody said that when the county signed the contract with First Lab to
provide drug-testing a year ago, urine samples were the only means considered.

"We didn't know that there were other options," Moody said.

On Friday morning, he told The Sun he would begin looking into
alternative, less-intrusive tests, such as the mouth swabs now used
by the Florida Department of Corrections and other government agencies.