This post is inexcusably late, but that's not going to stop me from writing it. While the main story from Tuesday's City Council meeting was a lengthy debate over allowing chickens on multi-family residential lots, there was also a significant discussion on approving a request-for-proposals for a new downtown library. I have attended most of the discussions regarding the new library, but this was the first I heard someone raise a question about the possible contradiction between starting the process for an expensive, brand-new Central Library at the same time as the Madison Public Library Board has put a smaller, but equally (if not more) outdated neighborhood library on Monroe Street on the chopping block.

Some Council members raised the issue of the city continuing to fund major libraries (Sequoya, Ashman) in each district while letting smaller libraries languish a bit and whether that was in the spirit of such ideas as walkable neighborhoods. Ald. Brian Solomon, whose district is across the street from the Monroe Street library, put the issue this way:

As we move forward on this issue, we remember that we do have obviously a very tight budget situation right now and a proposal on the table right now to close one of our branches of our libraries, and I think when we think about the importance of preserving our neighborhoods and our cities, the importance of having gathering spots for people throughout the city, the importance of libraries in general as a critical part of a neighborhood and local community, the importance of pedestrian traffic and just many, many other issues, we need to decide if building more centralized, larger libraries that require more people to drive to them is really the direction that we want to go in Madison versus keeping our libraries more distant and more spaced out and more in the communities they serve.

Ald. Larry Palm, who represents the Council on the library board, also made the point that despite the good idea of walkable neighborhoods, the reality is that the Central Library is the most used one, even by those in the Monroe Street area, making renovating it or building a new one (the latter being the preferred option) very important. Both Monroe Street and the Central Library are outdated from a technology standpoint and from a structural standpoint (HVAC, etc.), but the Central Library has the benefit of being the flagship library for the city (although it's important to note that closing the Monroe Street library is nowhere near a done deal yet).

Another Council member, Ald. Brenda Konkel, brought up the issue of the cost of a new library compared to simply renovating the old building. In particular, she made the point that once a project gets rolling in the city, it becomes very hard for the city to step in to stop it, especially if money has already been spent on planning and the city would be taking a loss on that. That may not be as true for the Central Library, which because of its downtown location is a very expensive prospective project and one that has been denied before for cost reasons. Right now, $1.75 million is in the 2009 budget just for planning the Central Library, but Tripp Wilder, president of the library board assured the Council that none of that would be spent unless one the proposals from the RFP is chosen. He added that rehabbing the current building has not been a serious consideration yet, but if the RFPs fail to obtain a proposal that is affordable to the city, that it would certainly a consideration (especially since the Central Library is not getting any younger or less bomb-sheltery as time goes on).

Ultimately, the current RFP, which is based on a plan presented by developer Terrence Wall, could save the city some money by selling the land under the current Central Library to create a large condominium building, in which the library would own, not rent, its space. By "leveraging" the land, Wilder said, the city could more easily cover the $25-35 million cost of a new downtown library. But the bigger question is, do you want a new one, and how much is it worth to you? Would you rather see more small library branches, or do you prefer the centralized ones? Which ones do you use more? Do you think having a new Central Library would be worth the potential cost of trying to rebuild in Madison's downtown, or do you think the current Central Library would be good enough with some moderate renovation?