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Jail called priority over new library
Crowd debates need for facility in town
Friday, Dec. 18, 2009
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by REID SILVERMAN
Kelsey Hancock of Leonardtown speaks on behalf of Girl Scout Troop 4549 and in favor of building a new library for the Leonardtown area at the county commissioners' Tuesday public forum.
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Despite pleas from a large crowd Tuesday in support of a new library for the Leonardtown area, the project won't be moving ahead, the president of the St. Mary's County commissioners said Wednesday.
State lawmakers representing Southern Maryland won't support St. Mary's borrowing $25 million from the bond market, which directly affects the library project.
"We're going to have a budget work session Dec. 22," said Commission President Francis Jack Russell (D). "I suspect a number of projects will be moved back — the library in all probability will be one of them." However, "the jail is not going to be pushed back. We are committed to doing this project — the expansion of this detention center," he said.
At Tuesday's public forum, the commissioners' meeting room was almost filled to capacity, including a troop of Girl Scouts. Kathleen Reif, director of the county library system, said, "A new library is one of the most important investments a community can make."
Addressing the commissioners, she said, "The people I am trying to reach this evening are not you, but are the county residents who have expressed confusion about the recent publicity, and our state elected officials."
The Leonardtown library branch is in a National Guard Armory building constructed in 1954 and is 15,000 square feet. Despite its size, this library has the second highest circulation of the 10 libraries in Southern Maryland, only behind Lexington Park, she said. "People say ‘what's wrong with the library? It's fine,'" she said. There isn't enough space there, she said. "Children cannot act like children in Leonardtown," she said, like they can in Lexington Park where they have their own library section.
Russell asked for a show of support for the library and most of the audience stood.
John Boyd, treasurer of the Town Hall Alliance slate of county commissioners candidates in next year's election, said quietly, "If that wasn't a political move, I don't know what was." The Town Hall Alliance and Commissioner Larry Jarboe (R) said now is not the time to build a new library or to renovate the existing one, either.
Rich Johnson, running on the Republican slate to represent southern St. Mary's as county commissioner, said the state has a $3 billion deficit. "The bank is broke. There's no more money for this."
The library project is budgeted at $15.9 million and would be largely funded by the county government.
"Even our Sen. Roy Dyson doesn't support this. Del. John Bohanan doesn't support this anymore," he said.
Kelsey Hancock, a 13-year-old member of Girl Scout Troop 4549, said there isn't enough space at the Leonardtown library and summer reading programs have to be held elsewhere. "I know there's a money issue, but it's money well spent," she said.
Paul Kelley of Leonardtown said the project has been publicly vetted for three years. There has been plenty of opportunity to participate, he said. "To delay the construction at this time … will have a reverse impact. It will actually cost us more" to put it off now, he said.
Elfreda Mathis, retired educator, said the new library in Lexington Park has been "a godsend for Lexington Park and I want the same thing for Leonardtown." She said of the expansion of the county detention center, "I could care [less] how much space a prisoner has."
Dan Morris, another member of the Town Hall Alliance slate, said he agreed with Mathis, but said he was against funding a new library right now. "To spend that kind of money in these kinds of times would be irresponsible," he said.
Joe Wible Sr. of Leonardtown said he goes to the library once or twice a week. "But when I go to the library I don't really see any problems," he said. The issues right now are "timing and economics. Tough times take tough decisions," he said. "Please look at all the options and spend our money wisely."
"The library is not an amenity, a luxury, it's a necessity," said Mike Lugenbill of Leonardtown.
The expansion of the detention center is also affected by the $25 million in borrowing, but to what extent is not yet clear. The jail was built with a capacity for 230 people, but has been exceeding that for years. The new one would hold 555. The first phase of the project is budgeted at $25 million.
