Astoria City Council should reject a new Library

The Astoria City Council led by Ex-librarian Arline LaMear is attempting to push through an expensive new library construction project with costs projected between $29.7 million and $38.7 million. We all know that if $38.7 million is the initial estimated cost it will be much higher, public construction project costs always are.

During the Mayoral debate in the last election cycle when LaMear was running for Mayor it seemed very convenient that the woman picked to ask questions for it had 2 regarding a new library. It was an omen of things to come, once elected the new library was going to take on a forward momentum of its own.

Today here we are with the Council considering whether to approve and pay for it despite the wisdom of such a decision. All this will do is take much needed resources from infrastructure projects that the City desperately needs, and put it into a new building that’s rarely used by most Astorian’s.

The Library meets the needs of patrons.

The Council should turn its focus to other issues that really matter to taxpayers. I’d bet my library card that most of taxpayers, if actually consulted, would like to see better city streets, sidewalks, curbs, gutters, housing projects and the parking situation improved.

Ask people going to and from Astoria and Warrenton last summer what the biggest infrastructure problem is and they’d say 101 and the Young’s Bay Bridge, not a library expansion.

The Council should address this issue head on and begin a planning process to widen the bridge to four lanes or make another along side with a four lane highway from the bridge to Seaside. Obviously this would require the City to get State and Federal funding to proceed.

It’s a multi-million dollar project but the longer this is ignored by City, County and State officials the more expensive it will be when it MUST be done. Sooner or later it will have to; Clatsop County is not going to stop growing. The argument to move on this now is 10, 15, 20 years down the road this size of a construction project won’t get any cheaper, it’ll come at an astronomical expense.

Better streets, sidewalks, parking, roads, bridges, housing projects or moving forward on a Convention Center on Port Property would be time well spent by the Council. A modest Library remodel is fine, let a developer buy the Merwyn, tear it down and build a small housing or parking structure instead. Then maybe the Council can focus their time and attention to projects that will really improve Astoria.