To the Editor,
After a lot of bombast, hyperbole, exaggeration and hype, the library bond vote was decided by taxpayers on December 12th.
Their answer was a resounding “No”.
The library board and management thought they had a done deal. They hired a fancy architecture firm and had them draw up blueprints for a total renovation of the existing building at a cost of $37 million dollars and wasted almost $1.5 million on fancy presentations and publicity.
What arrogance!
All this came from a couple of surveys done several years ago where patrons were asked for ideas about improvements to the current library.
Library management “ran” with these ideas and referred them to an architecture firm with no budget constraints. Architects being architects the designers came up with a whiz bank “solution” to a mostly non-existent problem in the way of a “Taj Mahal” for $36.9 million!
Perhaps the next time a survey should be sent to every Bethlehem resident asking more realistic questions such as:
1.) Are you generally happy with the library as it is?
2.) Do you like a traditional library i.e. books and audio visuals? Or a more state of the art library i.e. “maker spaces”, auditorium, computer design and 3d printing facility, augmented reality stations, etc.?
3.) Would you like to see small satellite libraries in Glenmont and Slingerlands?
4.) Would you like some improvements? If so, how extensive should they be?
5.) What additional tax burden per year would you be willing to pay for improvements?
6.) Do you think we should start planning a brand new library for the Town of Bethlehem and would you like to be involved in the planning process?
Terrence Rooney,
Delmar
