Despite the fact that Morgan Hill
’s library proposal earned a “very good” rating in the latest
round of attempts to gain state library funding, it wasn’t good
enough to be in the money, so the city will go it alone.
Despite the fact that Morgan Hill’s library proposal earned a “very good” rating in the latest round of attempts to gain state library funding, it wasn’t good enough to be in the money, so the city will go it alone.
“There were simply too many proposals that received an “outstanding” ranking,” Carol O’H-are told reporter Carol Holzgrafe. O’Hare is incoming president of the Friends of the Morgan Hill Library.
It’s time now for the City Council to give the new Morgan Hill Library top priority status and move ahead – fast.
The city and library backers are correct in moving ahead on financing a new library with the dwindling RDA funds.
The library needs to be the top project for the city – ahead of the outdoor recreation center, indoor recreation center and soccer complex (that it is helping an outside group to build) adjacent to Sobrato High School.
The city has already spent boatloads of money on athletic and meeting places for city residents. We have a beautiful community center and an aquatic center.
It’s time that the city moves ahead full speed with a project that will help residents expand their minds by building a library that is large enough to serve Morgan Hill’s expanding population.
The current 14,000-square-foot Morgan Hill Library was built in 1973 when the population was about 7,000.
It is entirely too small to serve our community and the surrounding area, which has grown by leaps and bounds in the last three decades.
City officials plan to build a 28,000-square-foot building, the largest it can afford with its $17 million go-it-alone budget.
A building that size is designed to serve the Morgan Hill population of 35,000 plus the many more who live in the surrounding unincorporated parts of county and use the facility for the next few years. A 40,000-square-foot library had been planned if state bond money could have been secured.
We know the choice between a library and outdoor and indoor recreation centers is a difficult one, but it’s just as clear that the city can’t have all, at least not right now.
A plus in the library’s column is that unlike the aquatic center, the soccer complex, the community center and the indoor recreation center, the library won’t cost the city a dime to operate once it’s built.
Those costs are borne by the county library system’s joint powers authority, which operates the library. It’s time that the library be given top priority and that RDA funds be committed immediately to building this much-needed facility.
Words are cheap and easy. The budget is how citizens can tell where the city’s priorities really are. The RDA budget ought to place a new library building at the top of the priority list.
