Letter: Library plan shows foresight

EDITOR,
Thanks to the Press-Banner for last week’s thorough look at the exciting progress on our soon-to-come new Scotts Valley library.
As the article notes, one of the best things about this $7 million project is that it won’t use any of the city’s general funds, so the library’s progress does not take money away from police, roads, parks or any other general-fund endeavor.
How is it being paid for? The city has been accruing library-only funds for years, funds that are lost if not used for a new library. So, even if we never did build a new library for Scotts Valley, these use-or-lose library funds would continue accumulating for years to come before they then disappeared from the city, because by law, they can’t be used for anything else.
The need for a new Scotts Valley library is acute. Today’s library is so cramped that after school gets out, it’s often impossible to find a single empty seat there. The long-recognized need for a larger library is why the city legally obligated itself decades ago to build a large new facility.
An efficient library can offer so much to our community by fostering reading, providing educational and recreational programs, supplying large print materials for our senior population and providing meeting areas for community groups.
Our current library is restricted in what it can offer, because its space is so limited and it is so heavily used, as the article notes. This new community resource will have specific features for students, seniors and the middle school teens who now congregate daily at the library after school. This will allow for more programming, meeting rooms for clubs, glassed-in study rooms and more. It will be a wonderful asset, over and above what we have now.
This new library is the culmination of decades of work. I appreciate the efforts of our past and present mayor and City Council members for having the foresight to prepare for this exciting investment on our community.
For information: www.fsvpl.org.
• Elizabeth Walch is president of Friends of the Scotts Valley Library.