05/11/1988 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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e e e she felt that the branches should come after the main library expansion. Mr. Miller said he did not want to wait until 2000, but he wished to see the main library expansion take precedence. Ms. Bascom said she agreed with the staff emphasis on Bethel-Danebo even while agreeing that the City should not hurry into branches. Mayor Obie said that he favored going forward with branches due to questions of citizen access. Many people cannot go to the main li- brary. He would like the people in the community, particularly those in less affluent areas with limited access, to be able to use the library. He fa- vored a phased-in approach that depended on citizen support. Mr. Sennett said he had no comments at this time and appreciated the staff work. Ms. Decker summarized the council's comments. She said it appeared to her that the council favored waiting on branches, while directing staff to work on the possibility of adding branches in a phased approach before the year 2000. Responding to Mr. Holmerls concerns, she said the council will revisit all its decisions on June 15. The council will give its direction to the Council Subcommittee on Financing at that time. Ms. Decker clarified the upcoming meeting schedule for the council. She reminded the council that it had not yet determined who would serve on the subcommittee. Mr. Gleason added that the council had resolved to deal with the scope of the project so that the subcommittee had a tentative foundation to build upon. Mayor Obie said he may wish to ask each councilor to be prepared with a proposal on how to solve the financial issue and be prepared to do some creative thinking at the May 23 meeting. Ms. Decker said staff will try to have some concept of cost for the council at the June 15 meeting, based on the vision that the council develops regard- ing the scope of the project. .Responding to a question from Mr. Bennett, Ms. Decker said sale of the build- ing would not reduce the cost for building a new library, but would rather come back to the City in the General Fund. It would not reduce the bond issue, if there was a bond issue. Mr. Bennett said if a case must be made to the public on financial issues, it would be worthwhile to discover how much it would cost to make the building useable for the training facility. Mayor Obie added he would like to know how much the building would realize if sold. He said the training facility is another decision outside of the library project. As it is, the most valuable use of the building is as a library. Ms. Hildebrand said the engineers who did the work on the facility study pointed out the building needs approximately $2 million worth of work to maintain it as a library. This includes the asbestos removal, which brings the cost up. Mayor Obie asked Ms. Hildebrand if any library in the United States charged for its services. Ms. Hildebrand said preliminary findings from a study done by the American Library Association on fees and charges found no public library charging for a borrowers card. Libraries do charge for other servic- es. Ms. Hildebrand said the study will be available soon. Mayor Obie said it was non-traditional, but he likened libraries to renting video movies. A book providing entertainment is similar. He said that books for education MINUTES--Eugene City Council May 11, 1988 Page 8