The Sartell City Council’s decision not to discuss a city library until possibly as late as next summer was an unfortunate decision.
The council at its Nov. 23 meeting voted 4-1 to not discuss the library issue until a long-term assessment by the Great River Regional Board is completed, which is not expected until early next summer.
The council’s frustration with the library issue is understandable to a degree, but it’s a frustration largely of its own making – specifically by the three members of that council who have refused to budge on their choice for a south site for the community center. Those members are Steve Hennes, Pat Lynch and Mayor Sarah Jane Nicoll.
They have been asked repeatedly by library advocates and others to reconsider their south-site decision in favor of a more central location. None of the three would budge one bit. Their rationale is the south site has plenty enough room for the center and its possible expansion in the future. However, those three on the council know full well a library in that center is not in the cards – at least not a branch library – because GRRL, which would help set up and help run such a library, will not approve a site that close to the libraries in St. Cloud and Waite Park. GRRL’s space requirements also gave them a rationale to dismiss a branch library as any kind of option.
In other words, there will be no branch library in the community center. Any so-called “library” in the center will be a sorry excuse for one, such as a reading room or an “innovation center.”
Once the city spends sales-tax money on the community center, you can bet there will not be enough from that source or any other source for a separate library. In other words, at this point, it certainly looks like the city will not get a library, period, which is a slap in the face to the many voters who approved the half-cent sales-tax extension with the understanding the revenue would make possible a library.
And this is why it was unwise for the city council to vote to not discuss a library during the coming months. First of all, why pass a motion to squelch discussion on any topic, library or not? Second, that decision is another let-down to long-time and new library enthusiasts. Whether those council members intended to or not, their vote gives the impression to Sartell residents that they, the council members, plan to close their ears to any talk of a “library.” Their decision, whether they think so or not, gives the impression they don’t intend to entertain any notions of a full-fledged library in the city. Until later. When it’s too late.
Those three members, who have made so many excellent decisions in the past, have repeatedly said that, yes, of course they would like to see a library in the city, but their actions have not matched their words. And every time the subject came up, there was an almost eagerly blithe dismissal of the desires and concerns raised by library advocates. At least that’s the perception they gave. What caused them to dismiss the concerns of library advocates with such cold-shouldered attitudes?
Their decision is anything but democratic. It could be construed as a form of close-minded arrogance (whether it is or not), and that is exactly the way many residents in Sartell have already construed it.