June 17, 2010
Thursday PM

The Library has served us very well since it started way back when in 1901 now it's time for us to serve it well and build the new building. Now we'll get much of it paid for with matching funds that we will lose at the rate we are going and that is not going to get us anything. The current building is too small so moving to a new site is the only real option. The downtown site that was the main street school has been rejected twice already. There are problems with all the sites we could have a library on, not one of them is perfect and no place we choose to build can be, but we have a site picked and money in the bank as well as plans in the works.

The choice is build it or delve into politics so we pay more for less and we will not be the building the Library that should serve us for the next 50 to 100 years. I want to support my town and all the people who live here, but there are groups making it so I do not have a say in our library. By making it an issue I do not have a chance to vote on - since I do not live in the city - makes me not want to support the people making this a political issue.

The sad thing is at the rate we are moving in 5 years we will be right where we are now with no new library and no matching funds. The downtown is a tourist town now so make it the best tourist destination it can be, the library is not for tourists it is for us the people that live here year round. And it's ALL of us ,not just those that feel they can dictate where the library can be by locking out half the population's say on it by making it only a city vote. I want a new Library NOW and Copper Ridge fits the bill nicely but not perfectly, so support it please and we can support downtown even if the library is not there.

Mark Johnson
Ketchikan, AK

Received June 16, 2010 - Published June 17, 2010

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