Library Panel Thinking Big For Future

What is it they say about how, if you're going to do something, you should do it big?

The "something" the Fayetteville Public Library board of trustees hopes for is a facility expanded to nearly double the size of the 2004 structure. Given the library leadership's evaluation that today's library is busting at the seams just a decade after it opened its doors, one can understand the point they and their supporters are trying to make.

It's hard to believe just a few years ago the library was contained within the Fulbright Building behind the Washington County Courthouse.

Libraries, we've heard, are all about the imagination, and members of the board of trustees are engaging theirs. The expansion they envision includes about 80,000 square feet of additional space, including a bridge over Rock Street; nearly 140,000 more print and audiovisual materials; new computers; a "maker space" with 3D printers and audio and video editing bays; and a 750-seat auditorium with retractable seats where concerts, banquets, dance recitals, robotics competitions and public lectures could be held.

There's something else, at this point, that has to be imagined: Paying the estimated $50 million price tag.

"The library expansion, if you look at it at first blush, the numbers might scare you,"said Jim Blair, whose $3 million donation played a major role in making the existing facility possible. "I know it is scary, and I know the tendency is going to be to say, 'All this is too much, and we can leave out some things and finish them in the future. But I hope you don't do that. I hope you go for broke. I hope you go for a library that a town of 120,000 people is going to need."

Fayetteville got the outstanding library it has today because of the support it has from Fayetteville voters and from private donors. Fayetteville shoppers between 2000 and 2002 paid $19.3 million through a short-term, three-quarter cent voter-approved sales tax. Another $8.1 million came through donors.

Without question, what they're proposing is a big expansion and will take a lot of money. If any town is likely to make such a commitment to a library, it will be Fayetteville. The original tax to build today's library passed by a three to one margin in an August 2000 public election. In 2002, 85 percent of Fayetteville voters approved establishing a 1-mill property tax to help fund the library operations. The level of support for what was then a "big" idea proved to be strong.

But the track record isn't perfect. In 2006, the drive for a higher millage to fund library operations failed 47-53 percent. The measure would have let city government off the hook for annual funding. General funds from the city account for nearly half of the library's operational budget. Library Executive Director David Johnson suggested the library may seek an August 2015 election for a new property millage increase to fund the new building.

Is the $50 million price tag too much? Is a property tax the way to go? We haven't heard of a community yet that regrets spending money on a library. If anyone should be expected to think big, it's the board of trustees of the library itself. But local residents will have to engage in a conversation over the next few months to determine whether the plan is the right one for right now.