The Morgan Hill Library needs help. Area residents
– both adults and children – are urged to write to state
officials to ask them to give Morgan Hill the chance for a new
library.
The Morgan Hill Library needs help. Area residents – both adults and children – are urged to write to state officials to ask them to give Morgan Hill the chance for a new library.
The officials will decide in late October which grant applications for Proposition 14 bond money are approved and the winning cities will be funded to build new and larger libraries.
Morgan Hill’s library was built in 1973 when the population was about 7,000. The 2002 population was 34,900, not including residents from San Martin and other incorporated areas who also use the crowded 14,000 square-foot institution huddled next to City Hall.
If the $13.7 million grant application is successful the City will spend $18 million for a modern, up-to-date 40,000 square-foot building on the empty land facing DeWitt Avenue behind City Hall and the present library. Part of the grant application hinges upon the Morgan Hill School District and the library taking advantage of each other’s strengths to offer services to the community unavailable right now.
If the grant is unsuccessful the city will move to Plan B, which is to use the money it has to remodel the current library or, possibly even try to pass a bond issue to find the missing $13.7 million.
The city submitted its first grant application, along with dozens of other cities, in June 2002 but did not make the cut for the first round. The first round funded $138 million in grants; the second round will fund $120 million, followed sometime later by a final $90 million. $19 million remains from round one and will be dispersed in round two.
The current application was refined and tuned up, according to Councilman Steve Tate, and sent off with great hopes of success during the second round. Proposition 14 was approved by the voters, in November 2000, who reserved $350 million for library construction and renovation.
However, Tate said, distributing state money has become a political affair and pressure and encouragement from the public is necessary.
Children and adults alike are urged to choose one or two reasons why they think the town needs and deserves a new library, and write a short letter to the state librarian, Kevin Starr. The letters will be most effective if they reach the post office as soon as possible. Then hope for the best.
SEND TO: Dr. Kevin Starr, State Librarian of California, Office of Library Construction, 1029 J St., Suite 400, Sacramento, CA 95814-2825.
