There was a big discussion this summer about whether or not some of the branch libraries should be closed, with much of this discussion being instigated from City Hall, not the Library Board. I think it is safe to say that the community spoke on this issue and the answer was overwhelmingly "no." We the community rejected closing libraries even in the face of large budget cuts. The Library Board is going through a painful reduction of hours throughout the system instead of closing individual libraries, making it possible to add back hours when monies become available. This preserves the library system going into the future.
But the Mayor, in his budget, has taken another approach to closing neighborhood libraries. The City does a five year capital budget. The City only implements the most current year but in practice, the outyears act as a blueprint for how monies will be spent in the current year. The Mayor, in his proposed budget, has zeroed out capital funds for the libraries starting in 2006. This means that there will be no bond money going to maintain and rehabilitate neighborhood libraries after 2006. There is still some money from the library referendum for rehabbing neighborhood libraries but this was always planned to be on top of the money that the City allocated. Now I went back to 1992, and I couldn't find where any previous mayor had simply zeroed out funding to maintain part of the infrastructure. As far as I could see, this is unique. Now the only thing I can see is that Rybak lost on his bid to close neighborhood libraries through the operating budget and now is working to close neighborhood libraries more slowly by denying them capital improvement money. Over time, our libraries would be come ramshackle and obsolete until the deferred maintenance got so bad that there would be no alternative but closing some of them. I don't think this is what is best for Minneapolis and I don't think this is what the citizens of Minneapolis want. If you are concerned about this issue, the City Council will be making its changes to the Mayor's budget in mid-November. As part of this process, they will be deciding whether or not they support the Mayor's recommendations for the capital budget. I am urging people who are concerned about the libraries to contact their City Council Members at 612-673-2100 in the next two weeks and express their concern that libraries be maintained so we can have them long into the future. Carol Becker Longfellow REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
