Resident pleased with Civic support/ critical about library board
To the editor:
I am very pleased that nine individuals have finally come forward to support the building of a social center adjacent to the town’s library. This indicates that at last the degree of opposition has been recognized and public debate has begun. I noticed that the letter was signed by the directors of the Fort Myers Beach Civic Association and was not claimed to be endorsed by the body as a whole. The board would have better served the argument by polling its members.
I use the term ‘social center’ because as outlined in the plans the expansion does not meet with any of the definitions that I could find for a library. The civic board refers to letters “denouncing the good people who have planned this expansion.” I do not recall any letter written to the two local papers that contain any comment denouncing board members or the director.
The letter also refers to a profound showing of public support in the raising of nearly $500,000 in private donations that will have been raised from the residents of this community by the time the expansion breaks ground. I wonder how near, and that this may be another of the doubtful statements by the fine people at the library. The official audit of the library shows that as of Sept. 30, 2009, the total for gifts and donations was $60,488. I ask the library board to make public up-to-the-date details of the remarkable increase in gifts and donations that have been received since Sept. 30, 2009, to get anyway near $500,000.
Another doubt I have is the figure given by the director at the budget hearing I attended that there were 144,000 visits to the library in 2009. A few observations at the library indicate this figure to be bogus. And, please civic board members or library board members give examples of the bogus claims that have been made by opponents of the expansion.
As to where the denouncing letter writers were while at the taxing, debt assumption and planning had been going on, I would say that the board has not been given notice of meetings in the local papers, and there has not been a public election for several years.
I notice the expansion will house the latest in communication technology. I believe that if the library updates its existing technology, it will save space in its present building and grounds that are required before any expansion is started.
I think the civic board underestimates the degree of objection that is growing as taxpayers find out what has been happening. The library board should begin to listen to its critics and divulge full and accurate information and be prepared to go to a referendum at the next town election.
Wesley Devoto
Fort Myers Beach