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Thursday, March 11, 2010

More Games Being Played With The Downtown Library


Don't you just love how the Daily Times puts twists into their stories in the hopes of selling the Public on what they want you to believe.

This morning the Daily Times explains how the Downtown Library is almost 100 years old. I happen to own a Downtown Landmark that was completely renovated in 1984. If you were to walk my building you'd be very impressed with what Palmer Gillis did with the entire building, all three floors.

The same goes with the Library. It too was completely renovated years ago, specifically designed to handle huge amounts of weight. Books are not light in weight Folks.

What gets me the most is the fact that there's nothing but concrete and bricks supporting this two story Library. It should last 400 years. Trying to impress upon the public that this building is old is simply ridiculous. Libraries are getting smaller, not bigger.

However, there's another political game being played. The Library Director is threatening to take the Library out of the City and into the County. This has upset Mayor Ireton quite a bit. Mayor Ireton wants them to stay within the Downtown area but because the Feds are offering to pony up money to relocate, the Library wants to blow that cash.

So the game is, either the Library gets the prime property of Lot 10 Downtown or they threaten to move into the County. My hope is that County Executive Rick Pollitt steps in and says enough is enough. There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with the building they are in and considering the hard economic times this Country is in, we do NOT have a building that is failing and there's nothing saying they can't upgrade what they currently have.

Oh, that's right, the Feds aren't going to pony up free cash for renovations, so why not spend millions of dollars on a new building. Seriously Folks, when are our elected officials going to start acting financially responsible?

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Our elected officials don't listen to us any more so, I guess it is time to let them know that we are tired of wasting of breath of them. Time for a new group to take over that will listen to the voters.
Remember, November is coming!
kn

Anonymous said...

our elected officials will start acting financially responsible again when we reinstate the hanging tree...

joealbero said...

anonymous 11:21, what a load of crap. Clearly the Library is now trying to throw out comments to explain why they need to relocate, hence the 11:21 comment. Another one ust came through that I rejected because I know it's a load of crap.

Look, no matter what anyone says, I grew up in the Bronx/NYC, don't feed me this crap parents are too scared to let their children walk Downtown because of too much traffic. There's never enough traffic in Downtown Salisbury.

If you cannot control your own children and teach them when to cross a street, well, I'll refrain from stating the rest.

Anonymous said...

11:07 Rick will promise us ANYTHING as this is an election year. The only thing you can be sure of is that taxes will go up in 2011.

Anonymous said...

And if they really do need some space for the library, they can have part of the old firehouse -- that's the place where the bums and drifters should have a place to loiter all day and into the evening, too, to get them away from the kids who use the library.

Anonymous said...

Best place for it to be -- the old Salisbury Mall, along with the new Civic Center, complete with bar & grill, that Pollitt wants to build.

Anonymous said...

Joe:

It's not the traffic downtown (there's none at night and weekends) but the riff-raff that hangs out in the library. Until they are barred, my son can't go there.

local and proud of it said...

You are right on the money, Joe but do you think Rick Pollitt is going to do the right thing - that might be the first time he does! Love your blog - keep up the great work.

Anonymous said...

12:11...care to support your assertion with some facts???

Justin Case said...

2:33pm You should know better. The county doesn't have any money to buy anything.

Unknown said...

There was a time when man recorded information to share on rocks. Then came walls and scrolls. Eventually, the printed media came about and libraries were built. Just how are they used today though? How about telling stories and showing films?

Ask a young child whether going to a library or searching internet is easy to obtain information. Libraries are rapidly outliving their usefulness. Take a look at how busy the new County library in OC is.

Anonymous said...

Thank you Obama!

Anonymous said...

Depending on Pollitt (or Ireton) to do the right thing is like p____ing in the wind.

Anonymous said...

When are the officials going to start listening to the people? It is not going to happen----they All need to be dismissed! EW

Anonymous said...

The library as a group is that old.

The building was built around - what - 1968 or 78 or something?

Anonymous said...

Joe, in the editorial today, the Daily Times lied. I followed this story pretty close last year.

Ireton, love him or hate him, did not wait until January to say (wisely) no to Lot 10.

He told the library no about that around the time those three blobs on council said yes. He offered them Lot 1, all of it. I remember.

The library said they'd consider it but really they said Lot 10 or nothing!

The Daily Times said Ireton promised them the same thing as Barrie Tilghman -- the moon, you can have anything you want.

That's not what I remember. Ireton said he wanted to keep the library downtown, but I don't remember him saying walk all over the city taxpayer.

Honestly, Joe. This makes me sick. I served on a library board in Tennessee. We never went out in tough times and acted like the community owed us something.

The Daily Times lied. The library board is misbehaving. I may have my disagreements with Ireton, but he is not to blame for the library's problem. They are behaving like spoiled children if you ask me.