Española city councilors and their mayor last week couldn’t agree to even vote to support a possible November bond to fund building a new library. Want to guess when the library will get built?
An ineffective library board has languished since Española Mayor Joseph Maestas loaded the board with council appointees. Those appointees, along with the old guard, have not produced a thing of substance and have sat through two librarians while the city prepares to hire a third.
The mayor, to his credit, brought in former governor David Cargo, who has experience in Northern New Mexico putting libraries together and filling them with books. Cargo agreed to provide input but recently told the city he could put books in the library, but not build it.
Enter Maestas and his proposal for a bond in November to raise $6 million for the planning, architecture and building of a new library.
The council is having trouble dealing with Maestas’ plan, mostly because they feel taxpayers are already overburdened. They’re partly correct. The city council just added a quarter percent to gross receipts last year. The council is about to pile on a huge increase on utility users, just to keep the city afloat. While it’s being sold as water and wastewater infrastructure funding, rest assured it’s going into the general fund to pay bills.
Let us once again remind everyone the city passed a three-eighths percent gross receipts tax for water and waste water in 2003 promising utility bills would not be raised. They have raised them regularly since the passage of that tax.
A few things should happen before the council starts squabbling over who’s in charge, who gets credit, who’s telling whom what to do, who’s not getting the proper respect and, oh yeah, should we go out for a bond.
Solid numbers need to be provided regarding library use. If the library is experiencing continued increase in use, we may need a new library. If the numbers are languishing or diminishing, the library board needs to do some work and get the public involved and interested in their local library and its programs.
Some studies need to be done comparing our library’s size, circulation and use compared to cities of comparable size, taking into account the city of Española pretty much serves the whole Valley, regardless of city limit signs. The city needs to pay for that study and get out of this mentality of trying to get everyone else to pay our way. Budget for a proper study, do the study, use the study.
Then some town hall meetings may be in order. Give people a chance to discuss their wants and needs in regard to the library. The current library has several problems no one wants to address. Perhaps some public input would help move the library board and council to take some action.
At that point the council will know what direction it needs to go and perhaps bring in someone to do a proper study as far as needs, size, use and placement of a library.
We don’t like needless studies any more than the public does but some information gathering is in order. It makes for a stronger case and it will be easier for the mayor to lead the council instead of forcing a bond issue upon everyone after he signed a $26,000 contract with bond consultant George K. Baum and Company.
Lastly, the city leaders need to decide if they want to fund a new library properly after it’s built. The library is always the red-headed step child of the budget, getting cut first and most. Then during the year, the money seems to move from the library budget to that block hole known as the general fund. Where is the money budgeted for a librarian since Ann Moore’s departure in December? Where has the book budget gone?
Is a new librarian prepared to train current employees and weed out the bad ones? We need good customer service employees with a dedication to the library. That is lacking now. There’s no sense in building a $6 million library and not training the employees on how to serve the public.
We’re a ways off from forcing a bond on city councilors or the public. Let’s do some homework, prepare and enlighten ourselves, then decide whether a bond issue is necessary and if it can be passed by voters.