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.
No comments here? I can't fathom that! Excellent article as usual.
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