New Library

Here's a report from the front lines. On Monday, March 8, Westwood town residents met in the high school's main theater to discuss the Finance Commission's warrant to fund a new library, and to vote on the proposal. The Commission's warrant needed a two-thirds vote in favor to appear on the ballot for the town's April 27 election. “When it came time to vote,” writes Ed Burns in Westwood's Wicked Local, “the chorus of 'Ayes' crushed the sprinkling of 'Nays'.”

That language describes the atmosphere in the theater pretty well. Rather than permit the town to discuss the proposed library at length, library backers presented their case for almost an hour and a half. The presentation included details about how the town intends to finance the project. Since those details bear on the question of whether to issue a $9.3 million bond to build a new library, that information belonged in the meeting.

Too much of nothing
Can make a man ill at ease.
                             ~ Bob Dylan

Your neighbors might ask you, how can you oppose this project, when we've been planning it for ten years? We've already invested a lot of money in these plans. I'd turn the question around and ask, how can we plan a new library for ten years, at such a high cost, and come up with a plan for Colburn school that's no better than this one? From the earliest proposal in 2000, we knew that a new library would affect the Colburn school. In 2004, a year before the school district administration moved their offices to the new high school, we knew the building would stand empty in 2005. So it has stood for nearly five years. We have had five years to decide what to do with this empty landmark; and this is the best we can do: mothball the building, put it on rails, move it again, and then decide what to do? That's not a plan - that's procrastination.

It's plainly procrastination to let a well constructed, historic building deteriorate for so long, then spend so much nmoney on a plan that's not actually a plan. Everything about the building says don't let me go downhill anymore. Please don't let this happen to me. Everything about the library directors' proposal says we don't k now what to do with the building. We want to push the problem down the road to see if someone else can solve this nuisance for us. The proposal might not be so wasteful if we were not talking about $300,000 in extra cost. The proposal might not be so insulting if we were not talking about a building that stood as Westwood's handsome historical symbol for so many decades.

Do you want to be among the voters who condemn the Colburn school to destruction?

Milton opened their new /renovated library last April. The increased usage statistics and intangible community benefits are staggering.  Please just imagine how amazing it would be if this resource, managed by our talented library professionals, is added to our wonderful town. As an added benefit, the state would contribute approximately $4 million to assist us if we vote yes at Town Meeting - Mar 8, and the Town Election - Apr 27.

If approved, the new Westwood Library would be an incredible resource used by all: young children, pre-teens, teens, adults, and our seniors.

This could be a once in a generation opportunity for our town.

Thank you, Dan

Editor's Note: I removed the text of the Milton Times article from this post...go to http://www.miltontimes.com/DOTnet-frontJUMPS-LibraryEnjoys.html to read it.