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Contemplating a Growing Need - Commissioners debate whether to put bond referendum for library on the ballot
CURRENT BUILDING HAS ITS FAULTS: LEAKING ROOF CITED AMONG OTHER PROBLEMS
Journal photos by David Rolfe
As part of a general upgrade, the information desk at the Forsyth County Central Library was repositioned.
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Published: December 4, 2009
Voters could decide on whether to build a new Forsyth County Central Library next fall, although county commissioners have a lot to discuss before that can happen.
Four of the seven commissioners say they would back putting a bond referendum on the ballot next November.
During a closed session yesterday, commissioners discussed possible sites. They must also determine whether to put up a new building or renovate the existing one.
Supporters of the Central Library have long called for a new one, citing everything from the building's appearance and maintenance problems to its choppy layout. They cite examples as close as Greensboro, which in 1998 built a bright and modern library that has become one of the centerpieces of downtown.
The Greensboro library draws more than a million people every year -- more than twice the number that Forsyth's library attracts.
Although the library here has undergone some renovations, local officials said that the need for a new library is still great. Elizabeth Skinner, the assistant library director, said that when the library was host to a meeting of state library directors and showed off the renovations, the visitors also observed trash cans all around the atrium that were catching rain from a leaking roof.
The current library "is a disgrace," Commissioner Beaufort Bailey said. "I believe people will pass that bond if we put it out there. People have been talking 18 years about a library. The staff and everyone are really excited."
Commissioner Gloria Whisenhunt isn't excited. She believes that the county is in too much of a budget crunch to talk about new libraries. "By statute, we are mandated to provide some things such as the schools and the sheriff's office," Whisenhunt said. "We are not mandated to provide libraries."
Supporters of a library bond currently have the upper hand on the board, with support from commissioners Bailey, Ted Kaplan Walter Marshall and Dave Plyler, the board chairman.
Commissioner Debra Conrad said that it is too soon to decide on a bond vote next year.
"If revenue collections are down and real estate hasn't recovered (next year), it makes no sense to put a bond referendum on the ballot," she said.
Board members face no immediate deadlines to advance a bond vote. Rob Coffman, the director of elections for Forsyth County, said that commissioners would have to decide by late August or early September in order to meet the technical requirements of getting a bond vote on the ballot.
But whether to have a bond vote isn't the only issue: commissioners must determine whether the county would try to cover the entire cost -- roughly estimated at $32 million -- or count on community fundraising to carry part of the load. They would also have to work out what to do with the current library building, part of which sits on land that the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation could claim if the library moves away.
Then there's the question of location.
Mike Miller, the publisher of the Winston-Salem Journal, said that county officials have expressed some interest in the Journal's building downtown. The Journal is committed to staying downtown, he said, but the company has long considered moving or building anew because of the inefficiency of the current building.
"It is one of many options that the county has and that we have, and it is far from being a reality," Miller said.
Other potential sites for the library include somewhere in the Piedmont Triad Research Park in the old tobacco district east of the railroad tracks downtown.
Plyler said he has mentioned to officials at Reynolds American Inc. that its Art Deco skyscraper could contain the library and other operations, including a museum.
That idea that has yet to gain any traction.
Sylvia Sprinkle-Hamlin, the director of the Forsyth County Public Library, said that she and others connected to the library are "still wishing and hoping" for a library bond referendum. "We are just hoping that things work out," she said.
wyoung@wsjournal.com
727-7369
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