New Library Should Squash City Schemes...For Now

Now that Mesquite's library has been expanded,
what will become of this dirt lot?

Mesquite finally has a bigger library.

According to an excellent story by John Taylor in the Mesquite Citizen Journal, the old library reopened this week following an expansion project that doubled the size of the facility.

Hopefully, this will remove one big boondoggle that has repeatedly been used to scam the people of Mesquite over the years.

Back in 2005, a plan was afoot at City Hall to convert the old Virgin Valley Elementary School gymnasium into a new library.  At least, that was the excuse given when city officials attempted to kick the non-profit Mesquite Boxing Club out of the building.

To put it another way, the city wanted to take a building that was designed specifically and exclusively as a gymnasium, one that had been used as such for decades, and convert it into something it was never meant to be.

Public outcry bought the boys and girls time, but ultimately the group left.

During the two years the club was out, the city did absolutely nothing with the building.

And we're talking about years when the city had more money than they knew what to do with.

The club eventually returned to the facility, and it continues to operate today as a place where kids can go to learn the "sweet science." 

Whenever somebody trots out that ludicrous statement "there's nothing for the kids to do in this town," the boxing gym is one of the 13 or 14 things to be listed in rebuttal.

Then in 2009, under a new regime, the concept of a new library was used as the excuse to purchase an overpriced piece of Mesquite Blvd. land from the LDS church.  The deal happened so fast, and in such an underhanded manner, the citizens weren't able to mount much of a "public outcry," although there was plenty of it afterwards.

Again, the lie being put forth was that this land would make a great location for a much-needed bigger library.  And of course, it would be "for the children."

The city ignored a few facts along the way.  For starters, they never seemed to care that libraries are not within the city's province.   Bookatoriums in Clark County are the responsibility of the Las Vegas Clark County Library District. 

More importantly, when the library district officials were queried, they admitted they had no intention of building a new library in Mesquite anytime soon.

During those debates over what is now known as the "library land," several people continued to insist that there was plenty of available land surrounding the current library, and it would be easy to expand.  (By the way, for those who didn't know, the land where the library presently sits was also city-owned land which the city purchased from the LDS church then turned around and gave to the library district).  City officials, being the experts in library science and architecture that they were, said that wasn't a workable idea.

This week's opening of the new 2,600 square foot library expansion shows once again just how wrong that previous regime could be.

The new facility is also a testament to the changing face of libraries as a concept.

The truth is that libraries are being marginalized by the continuing growth of the Internet.  Believe it or not, kids are reading more today than ever before in the history of mankind; only they're reading computer screens instead of books.  Libraries as we have known them are a dying entity.

The new building in Mesquite has doubled in size, but they didn't double the number of books on hand.  In fact, they increased by only 12,000 "items" from their previous total of 38,000.  What they more than "doubled" was the number of computers available, going from four to 10 computers for general public use, and from two to five computers for kids.  By doing so, the library district has basically run up the white flag and admitted that libraries of the future will actually be more like internet cafes than warehouses for books.  It's a forward-thinking approach for which our library officials should be commended.

The opening of the expansion should also put an end to any additional schemes by government officials looking to pull at our nostalgic heartstrings by using a larger library as the ruse for more shady deals. 

Of course as long as there are children on the planet, like for example kids who play soccer, city officials will continue to find ways to manipulate taxpayers into accepting idiotic and expensive schemes for unnecessary land purchases and unneeded plastic buildings.