By Tanna Friday
For The Tribune
Councilor Ann Brown knows that sometimes the smallest things we do for our communities can have the biggest impacts. For Brown, this small thing is creating a free lending library for the residents of Argo.
“This has nothing to do with Ann Brown,” said Brown. “I am passionate about this, I am, but I am passionate about doing a job that I was elected to do for the citizens and that is to improve the amenities and activities that [Argo has] to offer.”
Over the years, libraries have changed and evolved, but the pleasure and joy of reading a book remains. There is not a library in Argo, but thanks to a recent donation from the St. Clair County Library, there will be shelves full of library books available to the community.
On Tuesday evening, the council voted to approve Brown’s five-year vision for the city – a free library for the community.
“The bookshelves have five to seven shelves on each bookcase,” said Brown addressing the council. “There are more than enough books over there that would adequately fill those shelves. My request is that we be allowed to get, for free, those bookshelves and books from Ashville and take advantage for our citizens of this opportunity to have these assets given to us free.”
Brown’s initial request was to bring the shelves into the city’s senior center room located inside city hall.
One of the questions addressed was whether or not the grant money awarded for the Senior Center was used for the space or for the equipment.
“If the grant is just for the equipment, then there needs to be a space designated for the equipment,” said Scott Barnett, city attorney. “If this is true, there needs to be a space dedicated for the seniors and a space dedicated to the equipment. Whether or not other items are put in there for public use, obviously, that presents an issue with public access.”
The next discussion was to move the shelves into the driving school. “The room that is used for the driving school that is rented out,” asked Councilor Brown, “That room has no restrictions on it?”
“All restrictions apply by the city council,” answered Barnett.
“So, then could we use 30 feet of one of those walls to put the bookcases on?” asked Brown. “And then when we can figure out this grant, then move them. If we cannot move them, we can leave them in that room and it could be the same guideline with the two bookcases as a lending library.”
Councilor Corkey Massey said that his main concern is an increase of traffic and the security of city hall.
“My main concern, and I know Ann this is close to your heart,” said Massey. “If those books were back there, it gives people an excuse to go back there. We are going to end up having to hire somebody to watch the library, the room, the senior’s room or whatever. Someone is going to have to be responsible for the books that the county gave us. We have no record of who took the books and who brought books back.”
“My problem is it is going to become a money pit,” said Massey. “We will have to hire somebody, a librarian or whatever. I just don’t see it working for us.”
Brown disagreed. “I don’t think there’s that much space in this room or in this building that can’t be monitored by the monitors in the clerk’s office on their computers,” said Brown. “Rarely have I been in here that they didn’t know I was here. I think what I am hearing is that we want to keep the citizen’s out of this building.”
Massey rebuked, “No, no. I want the citizens to come here all they want to come here. If we got a library back there, we need somebody to monitor it. A library has to be supervised.”
Mayor Bradley added, “My concern is this, the books, probably in three or four years, are going to be obsolete. Where are we going to get any money? Grants or whatever in three or four years to replace the ones that we are bringing in now?”
Massey added, “We’ve got no money.”
“If this is completely free,” said Brown, “Then we can have a fundraiser to raise money to buy new books. It doesn’t have to cost us anything. The books and the shelves are both going to be free.”
“If I believed it would be free and would continue to be free, I would be all for it,” said Massey.
“The last conversation that you and I had about this,” said Brown. “You said that you could support this if it didn’t cost the city any money. So now I proposed a plan that will not cost the city any money.”
“If in the future it turns into a money pit, then we can just discontinue it,” said Brown, “It is not something that has to be continued once it has started. There are a lot of opportunities for fundraisers to buy books, to buy activities, to plan activities, not only for children, but also for senior citizens.”
“What I am asking is,” said Massey, “If these books are so good, and so there so valuable and every library in St. Clair County has already picked, why are they so good and so valuable?”
“Because every library in St. Clair County has their budget and they get grants,” said Brown. “So they keep their library updated with books. They don’t need these books. They have already taken from the library what they’ve wanted and there are still books that were published in 2016 and brand new. These are up-to-date, hardback books.”
“We owe it to our citizens to at least offer them the opportunity to utilize this facility their taxpayer dollars are paying for,” said Brown. “We are not offering them any activities up here. We are not offering them any reason to be up here with their children, their time off, retired off. Every other municipality in this county has activities for the seniors, a calendar of activities. If we had a reason for people to come up here, then there’s no limit to what we could offer our citizens. We got to start to somewhere and why not start somewhere that could actually be free?”
After much debate, the council compromised on a location for Brown’s lending library plan.
“The Council voted to get two 15-foot bookcases from the St. Clair County Library, which closed in September,” said Brown. “One 15-foot bookcase will be stored with books in the lobby of city hall and the other in a storage unit donated by Massey.”
When asked how many books Argo would be housing at city hall, Brown said that originally the facility held around 14,000 books. “I will be meeting with some librarians that have set aside some books that they think we would like to have,” said Brown. “We will be working on transporting the shelving and books to the two locations.”
“My hope is that, in the future, Argo will be able to grow and provide a library for its citizens,” said Brown.
News of the St. Clair County Library came in fall of this year when the St. Clair County Commission announced their decision to discontinue funding to the county library in 2018.
The resolution concerning the funding went before the Commission in May. The resolution reads, “The Commission feels that maintaining a county library facility in Ashville while the city is maintaining a separate, quality facility that services the same patronus is “duplicative” and “not in the best interest of the libraries throughout the county.”
5 Comments
Kevin Small
Imma gonna be that guy. Is it a Landing Library or Lending Library?
Donna Santos Griffith
It pained me each time the article said Landing Library. “LENDING” Library…. There are lots of ways to make this small LENDING library beneficial and available to the citizens of Argo. I hope they can make it work.
Teresa Cook Gaston
Are writers no longer able to proofread or is there such a thing as a “landing” library?
Scott White
Boy i am glad. I couldn’t sleep at night
Brian Wells