About the Library

Watching the stock market with its downward dive, I am reminded that this is very possibly not the greatest time to talk about spending money on the public good.  Actually, if we were sensible folks, it might be the very best time to talk about spending money on the public good since interest rates are very low.  However, one of the downsides of old age is the increasing conviction that humans, or at least the current manifestation of them, lack a certain kind of good sense.

Nevertheless, Point Roberts probably, very probably, ought to be thinking seriously right now about investing in a bigger library.  The way library funding works here in Whatcom County is that the locale provides the completed building and the Whatcom County Library turns the building into a library with books, furnishings, employees, services, computers, and like those things.  If we want a larger library, then what we have to work with at the moment is the Julius Firehall next door to the Community Center, which the community owns.  But it is not a completed building.  It needs about a half million dollars to turn it into a completed building such that the What County Library could turn it into a real library.

There are several ways that could happen, realistically.  The money could be raised locally by private donation, the money could be raised by passing a tax levy, or some combination of these two, or some of the money could be raised by pursuing foundation grants of some sort.  What's your choice?

I haven't made the case for expanding the library's size.  Moving to the Julius Firehall would effectively double the square footage.  There was a meeting last week in which I was persuaded that it needed to be done.  I'm not going to repeat all the content of that meeting today, but I'll come back to it.

What I'm writing about today is the fact that tomorrow at 1 p.m., at the library, the Friends of the Library are meeting to discuss what might be done.  If you are a library user, if you are a fan of Point Roberts as a good place to live, if you remember how important libraries have been to you throughout your life, if you are in the locale, if you are free tomorrow, Tuesday, August 9, at 1 p.m., come and help us think this problem through.