Yogi Berra and the Library Board
Yogi Berra and the Library Board
Marilyn Olsen has contributed this article. She was president of the Friends of the Fairhaven Library for 2007 and 2008.
—-
When Yogi Berra observed, “It’s like déjà
—-
When Yogi Berra observed, “It’s like déjà
Marilyn Olsen has contributed this article. She was president of the Friends of the Fairhaven Library for 2007 and 2008.
----
When Yogi Berra observed, “It’s like déjà vu all over again,” he was talking about Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, but he just as easily could have been talking about the Bellingham Library Board.
After years of indecision about where to locate a new central library, in 2008 the Board presented a proposal to the City Council to have the taxpayers support a $56 million bond to build a fancy new library. Never was there ever any real plan for what the $56 million would pay for mind you, just a proposal that the citizens give the board the $56 million.
Several of the long-time Friends of the Fairhaven Library had for years been lobbying the Library Board to please just do some simple repairs to the Fairhaven Library.
The board responded by suggesting the request for repairs be incorporated in the bond issue.
These same several Friends, sensing the potential folly of this idea, responded by asking the City Council and the Mayor to please exclude the cost of the repairs to the Fairhaven Library from the bond issue. All we want is all we’ve ever wanted, these Friends said, please just make the simple repairs necessary to preserve our 104-year-old library for future generations.
Good thing, too.
Shortly thereafter, the Mayor tabled the board’s request for the bond issue and the Council budgeted $2.3 million to do, at last, what these Friends had asked for all along. Make the simple and necessary repairs to the Fairhaven Library.
The bidding process could have begun and the repairs the Friends had asked for all along could have actually been accomplished in a prudent and timely manner.
The Board, however, decided instead to hire architects, and spend several months not helping move along a plan for the simple and necessary repairs to the Fairhaven Library, but to come up with a grand new proposal for the Fairhaven Library that would add an additional $1 million to the project. While their current $3.3 million proposal is, happily, $52.7 million less than their last idea, since the additional non-budgeted $1 million doesn’t exist and the economy is in recession, the $3.3 million is another plan the board is proposing that the city and the taxpayers can’t afford.
At the Board’s public meeting to unveil this $3.3 million plan Thursday night, the same small, hopeful group of Friends appeared again. This time with a proposal to the Mayor and the City Council to just do what the group had asked for all along, make the simple and necessary repairs to the Fairhaven Library in a fiscally responsible, prudent and timely fashion.
Now, the Mayor and the Council have another decision to make. It’s déjà vu all over again.
----
When Yogi Berra observed, “It’s like déjà vu all over again,” he was talking about Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, but he just as easily could have been talking about the Bellingham Library Board.
After years of indecision about where to locate a new central library, in 2008 the Board presented a proposal to the City Council to have the taxpayers support a $56 million bond to build a fancy new library. Never was there ever any real plan for what the $56 million would pay for mind you, just a proposal that the citizens give the board the $56 million.
Several of the long-time Friends of the Fairhaven Library had for years been lobbying the Library Board to please just do some simple repairs to the Fairhaven Library.
The board responded by suggesting the request for repairs be incorporated in the bond issue.
These same several Friends, sensing the potential folly of this idea, responded by asking the City Council and the Mayor to please exclude the cost of the repairs to the Fairhaven Library from the bond issue. All we want is all we’ve ever wanted, these Friends said, please just make the simple repairs necessary to preserve our 104-year-old library for future generations.
Good thing, too.
Shortly thereafter, the Mayor tabled the board’s request for the bond issue and the Council budgeted $2.3 million to do, at last, what these Friends had asked for all along. Make the simple and necessary repairs to the Fairhaven Library.
The bidding process could have begun and the repairs the Friends had asked for all along could have actually been accomplished in a prudent and timely manner.
The Board, however, decided instead to hire architects, and spend several months not helping move along a plan for the simple and necessary repairs to the Fairhaven Library, but to come up with a grand new proposal for the Fairhaven Library that would add an additional $1 million to the project. While their current $3.3 million proposal is, happily, $52.7 million less than their last idea, since the additional non-budgeted $1 million doesn’t exist and the economy is in recession, the $3.3 million is another plan the board is proposing that the city and the taxpayers can’t afford.
At the Board’s public meeting to unveil this $3.3 million plan Thursday night, the same small, hopeful group of Friends appeared again. This time with a proposal to the Mayor and the City Council to just do what the group had asked for all along, make the simple and necessary repairs to the Fairhaven Library in a fiscally responsible, prudent and timely fashion.
Now, the Mayor and the Council have another decision to make. It’s déjà vu all over again.
3 Comments