EDITOR: The current City Council members have overseen the
construction of a community center and an aquatics center. They are
poised to begin a new library project, but it is a reversal of
their previous endeavors. Instead of ample space and good looks,
they are set to build a library that is insufficient for the
present, let alone the future.
EDITOR:
The current City Council members have overseen the construction of a community center and an aquatics center. They are poised to begin a new library project, but it is a reversal of their previous endeavors. Instead of ample space and good looks, they are set to build a library that is insufficient for the present, let alone the future.
If the downtown site at Third and Depot is selected, it will be a two-story structure that impacts the construction and makes future operations complicated. It will be in a crowed space (which currently seems empty, but will be utterly jammed when 94 condominiums are in use). With just housing and businesses the area traffic can be easily controlled with a couple of one-way streets. If the library is added to the mix, you will need two or three more stoplights.
Over the last decade or two the members of the community have discussed, rediscussed and re-rediscussed, the library situation. Each discussion comes to the same conclusion – build the new library between Peak and DeWitt on the city’s Civic Center property, thereby saving both the tranquility of space and cost of property.
Instead the council wishes to commit the city to the purchase of a piece of land 25 years from now. Twenty-five years ago a house would sell for $50,000. Today that house sells for $1 million. Multiply the value of the land at Third and Depot streets owned by Rocke Garcia by 20 and determine where the funds will be derived.
I suggest that the council start re-re-rediscussions and see what the people of Morgan Hill really want to do. Then I suggest you do that.
Robert Blaine, Morgan Hill
