Grand Forks Library Mahal Not Needed; Current Building Built To Be Expanded

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Written By:
The Whistler

Dec 10, 2010
1:52pm

Of course it’s not about what we need. It’s what the city elites want.

There’s a letter to the editor in the GF Herald that I found very interesting. It’s actually the second one bringing up this point, but the writer was involved in the development of the current library so I’m going to write about this letter.

The architects designed a building that could be expanded within the structural shell. Some of this space has been added, but the structure still can accommodate additional footage of 5,000 square feet to 8,000 square feet in the southwest and south area of the structure.

That still would leave a large center area that could be designed to cathedral-style architecture.

Regarding parking, the site accommodates four rows of parking. But 40 years ago, only two rows met the needs, so that was all that was developed at that time.

Also, for the past 40 years, there has been a still-undeveloped lot between the library and the motel. The lot probably could be bought and developed for overflow parking, then connected to the library via a pedestrian crosswalk.

Promoters of a new library blew their cover when they let the Leevers site become one of the finalist locations. The Leevers site is only 119,529 square feet. That’s 5,260 square feet smaller than the present library site.

What the library needs to do is to embrace the future which will mean primarily electronic lending often without the borrower ever coming on site.

As I said the other day, soon the majority of worthwhile books won’t even be available in hardcover. By that time we’ll wind up with an enormous empty room with a few tables with computers on them.

If the library had a need today though they could expand the building. But that’s not expensive enough. They have plenty of money on hand to expand and remodel the current building without raising taxes if they roll back the big spending increases they’ve had in the last ten years.

Of course the current city council and library commission will have their name on a plaque somewhere in the new Library Mahal, so that’s what’s important. To them.

I just got a notice that shortly after 5:30 on Monday the 13th the Grand Forks City Council will be having a special meeting to discuss the Library Mahal location.

By the way, notice the nifty picture of the Alerus’s non-albino brother dressed up in front of the new Library Mahal.