Letter: New library would enhance community
December 27, 2012 at 6:00 pm in Worthington Daily Globe
Regarding the recent discussions about the need for a new library, I feel the need to contribute. Continue Reading
Letter: New library would enhance community
4 Comments
I’m sure a new library would enhance Worthington. That’s exactly why Worthington should be the entity paying for it with that $10 million surplus from the sale of the hospital. The county should be paying for county needs such as maintaining roads and rebuilding bridges throughout the county. Worthington (and Adrian to a lesser extent) are being provided libraries courtesy of the farmers who pay most of the taxes in the county. They don’t even send the Bookmobile around for the rest of us as they did years ago.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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“Worthington (and Adrian to a lesser extent) are being provided libraries courtesy of the farmers who pay most of the taxes in the county. “— Your property taxes are based on the amount of land you own, don’t want to pay the taxes? Sell your land to your neighbor and you will pay less, we all pay for what we own, but we don’t get tax incentives and government subsidies on our town property! “They don’t even send the Bookmobile around for the rest of us as they did years ago.” And they don’t send the Blue Bunny truck to my house with the milk and dairy products anymore either! When it’s not being used, what’s the use of continuing it?
Hot debate. What do you think?
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I don’t own land. I talked with the library in Edgerton and was told the library in Edgerton is mainly paid for by the City of Edgerton although they do get a little money from the county. I asked how much the county pays and was told “Not much”. I guess the little town of Edgerton can pay for their library but the city of Worthington can’t? One of the commissioners stated they voted down the bike trail because there wasn’t enough money for the county roads. It seems to me roads should be a much higher priority for the county than building a new library for Worthington. I question the wisdom of building a library at a time when we need to cut down on government spending at all levels especially in these times of rapidly changing technology when we don’t even know what the relevance of public libraries will be in the future.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Businesses like Blue Bunny have to make a profit to stay in business. Government services like libraries or bookmobiles don’t have to make a profit and they don’t. I contacted the library in Pipestone which combined the city library with the school library and is located in the school. According to the person I talked with the operating costs of running the Pipestone library are shared by the school, city, and the county. I don’t think it’s at all unreasonable to ask the City of Worthington to jointly share the costs with the county. That seems to be quite common in other communities.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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