Soy un perdedor..

I'm a loser baby, so why don'tcha kill me?

It's true. I am very much lame.  I stayed home from school these last two days for absolutely no reason.  I feel... bleh...

The other day I wrote a "J" on my hand to remind me to do something.  Unfortunately I can't remember what it meant.  I hate when I do that.

So, I've been looking at the plans for, and information about a new city library.  Here are the facts:

• Our library currently has 8,000 sq. feet and contains 77,000 volumes
• The new library would be 40,000 sq. feet and cost $14,000,000 (9.8 million would be payed for through a bond, meaning increased property taxes)
• Currently the court occupies 900 sq. feet and administrative facilities occupy 11,000 sq. feet.  These will both be moved to the new Civic Center when completed.
• The new Firestation will cost  between 2.5 and 3.5 million dollars
• The new Civic Center will cost between 15 and 18.5 million dollars
• That's a bloody lot of money that Springville doesn't have
  

It seems to me that building a library we can't afford isn't so smart.  It also seems to me that we need more library space.  But guess what!  Once our new Civic Center is complete we will have 12,000 sq. feet of unused space!

So, for a fraction of the cost of a new library building we could instead renovate the existing building.  This would give us space for about 200,000 volumes, putting us up to there with Provo, Orem, and American Fork.  This would also allow for offices, study rooms, meeting rooms, etc.

Yes, I know, Springville grows fast.  The plans for a new library building provide for about 10 to 20 years of growth.  While renovating the existing building would only allow for about half of that growth it would provide us with a few years to repay the cost of the Civic Center and Fire Station.  When we are finally in a situation that makes a new building feasible and needed then we should consider floating a multi-million dollar bond.  Until then we should "use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without."