Letter in Support of Keeping 1913 Library

To the editor,

In response to Eileen Thomas’s letter of June 22, there are so many clarifications needed to be made that I can’t even begin to address them here. All pertinent info—including a petition to support keeping the original 1913 Library building while building the new library—is available at the New Canaan Preservation Alliance website. It is important to note that:

1) Those of us in support of our 1913 library are not against the new library build and we are not asking to delay it. We are asking for the 1913 Library to be put in the town’s MOU in order for us to develop a workable plan to reuse 1913 so that it is self-sustaining and useful for another 100 years, and

2) It’s hard to understand how a vote of this impact to the town and the taxpayers could even be considered without a) due diligence on the part of the town b) an operating plan and budget that illustrates the current and future costs associated with the construction (and any potential overruns) of the new library, and full transparency around the ongoing commitments from the town to support an operating budget that includes the additional overhead costs that go with a larger facility. So, to Ms. Thomas, many of us in support of retaining and repurposing our 1913 library building are hoping to come together to work with the library to find a way forward.

Letter: Request for One-Year Period So That 1913 Library Building Can Be Preserved

I am writing to request adding a one year consideration period to the Memo of Understanding in order to allow a group of concerned residents to work with interested town parties in order to form a plan to save and re-purpose the 1913 library building. This request for a one year consideration period is to address the fact that many of us (and, it seems, many in the community) have questions that don’t seem to have been addressed yet. For instance, I was there when John Engel said he’d set up a walk through of the 1913 library for architects along with library staff. The two architects who attended this walk through, Marty Skrelunas and Wes Haynes, both said the 1913 Library building was in good shape (my own words, but you can read report results here). As a taxpayer I’m concerned that we seem to be planning on allocating $10,000,000 in funding without discussing details or carrying costs on the bond and without some type of community discussion around appropriate financial, design, economic and marketing (along with structural and geo-technical data) reports, which would be a disservice to a project of such merit as this transformative library project.