Friday, July 25, 1997
City council leases old Hasting's building
By ANTHONY WILSON/ Abilene Reporter-News
The Abilene City Council booked space in a southside shopping
center for a storefront library branch Thursday.
The council also informally agreed to schedule the upcoming
library bond election for Nov. 4, when voters will be considering
14 state constitutional amendments, to save the city approximately
$10,000 in election costs.
After twice tabling a proposed lease for 5,600 square feet
in the Frenchmen's Creek Shopping Center, the council unanimously
approved the five-year contract. The city will pay $38,304 annually
for the space, once home to a Hasting's bookstore, at South 14th
and the Winters Freeway.
The branch is scheduled to open in January.
City Librarian Cynthia Pirtle expects the operation, which
will offer children's materials and a small selection of adult
fiction, will be "wildly popular."
"We've been working on this forever," Pirtle said.
"We're ready to roll. Unless I miss my guess, we'll be busier
than we care to be. People are going to come to the pilot and
start finding stuff. Then they'll want to come to the main library
to find more. They will enhance one another."
The storefront branch is meant to be a stepping stone to a
larger, permanent branch within five years.
The branch was one of the recommendations from the Citizens
Library Review Panel, which also advised the council to call a
bond election on the construction of a 75,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art
main library at North 6th and Cypress.
Though council members initially said they preferred the library
issue occupy its own ballot to avoid confusion, they felt differently
after seeing cost projections.
While an October election would cost approximately $25,000,
piggybacking the bond issue on the Nov. 4 state election would
cost about $15,000, City Secretary Jo Moore said.
"I can't see where it would be a detriment," panel
chairman Ed Patton said, predicting a library bond issue will
draw voters regardless of the date.
The council is expected to formally call the election next
month.
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Copyright ©1997,
Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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