Here’s a column by Robert L. Jamieson Jr. following up on a story reported here at LISNews on September 26 about cuts to the Seattle Public Library budget.
- from the SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
Jamieson urges Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels to “drop by the Life Care Center on Southwest Admiral Way, where sick and elderly residents relish simple pleasures.
The mayor could then look nursing home resident Loretta Stone in the eye and tell her about his plan to kill the bookmobile.
That news stunned Stone so much that she raised her hand in desperation during a church service Sunday. “Say a prayer for the bookmobile,” she cried. “It’s my whole life.”
The 56-year-old woman has cerebral palsy. She uses a wheelchair. She vows to fight for the bookmobile, which gives her and so many others a link to the outside world. “I know the bookmobile costs money,” Stone told me. “But just look at the happiness it gives people … this will break my heart.”
Seattle library funding
Robert Jamieson needs to get his facts straight! The money for building the new Central Library and the branch libraries around Seattle came from a 1998 bond issue. The bond issue DID NOT cover operating expenses, ONLY buildings. As a result, Seattle’s got beautiful new libraries all over the place and no money to staff them or buy books. The bookmobile is just the latest sad tale in this debacle of closed libraries and frozen book budgets.
That said, Greg Nickels needs to get a clue. This is not the time to cut from the library’s budget– it’s time for some other part of the city services to feel some pain.
Re:Seattle library funding
>This is not the time to cut from the library’s budget– it’s time for some other part of the city services to feel some pain.
Or maybe, perhaps, raises taxes?
The idea that you have to squeeze everyone to get a service is understandable but why don’t people realise that sometimes things just have to be paid for? Of course it’s a political problem whereever you live but cutting services isn’t the only answer!