Library grant plan dropped
February 19, 2013 at 4:37 pm in Worthington Daily Globe
WORTHINGTON Just two weeks after authorizing staff to apply for a $500,000 Minnesota Department of Education grant for construction of a new library, Nobles County commissioners on Tuesday learned it may not be the best thing to pursue at this time with uncertainties about the project still lingering.
Continue Reading
It’s interesting that there are two articles in the Daily Globe today about libraries. In the little town of Westbrook the library inherited $30,000 and the people had fundraisers to raise another $50,000 to expand their library. In Worthington the City sits on a more than $11,000,000 surplus from the hospital sale yet they expect the county to go into debt to pay for a new library in Worthington where at least 77% of the library cards are held by Worthington residents. The 23% of non-Worthington cardholders went down by one a couple of weeks ago because I went into the library for the first time in years and cancelled my library card. I saw about four people using the library at that time although granted it was a tuesday morning. I’m sure it must get a lot busier than that at times or they wouldn’t be talking about building a new library. Marshall, Mn is a pretty comparable city to Worthington. Marshall pays two thirds of the cost of running their library and Lyon county pays one third. Why can’t Worthington do the same or at least share half of the cost?
Hot debate. What do you think?
21 
22
Because unlike Marshall the major employee in Worthington brings in illegal workers who use the resources, but don’t pay into those same resources.
Hot debate. What do you think?
23 
16
Greatfan — one should never miss an opportunity to try to change the topic to illegal immigration, right? One trick pony. You’re wrong on so many counts. Nobody should take your bait.
Hot debate. What do you think?
13 
21
You took it.
Like or Dislike:
12 
9
Maybe you should have gone to the library more often than you did. I’m sure the staff there was impressed by your “draft card burning” drama. I hope you gave those poor staffers a piece of your mind — along with sharing the reasons behind cancelling a card you never used. No media present for a photo op?
News flash — if the County decides to proceed with a library project without Worthington’s involvement, and if you’re a property owner, you’re still going to be paying a (very small) part of it. Or do you plan to organize some kind of tax protest?
Hot debate. What do you think?
16 
16
You sure are doing a lot of speculating there Eastender but no it wasn’t as dramatic as all that. There was only one lady at the desk and she did seem a little surprised that someone would cancel their library card but she said she would take care of it and that was that. As far as I know the City of Worthington has never involved itself in paying for the library that is primarily used by Worthington residents unless they did when the old Carnegie library was still in use so obviously if they go ahead with it the rest of the county residents will continue to be the main taxpayers paying for the library. I just thought it was interesting the pride the residents of a small city like Westbrook take in doing for themselves and raising funds to improve the library. Edgerton also provides their own library. It shares a building with Edgerton City hall. It appears in Worthington they much prefer to have someone else do the paying for their library. From the viewpoint of the county I think it is a much higher priority to replace the many substandard bridges and roads than it is to provide a library for Worthington. The county seems to have abandoned some of the county parks such as Midway county park. They used to at least maintain the gravel drive into Midway but they don’t seem to even be doing that any more. I’d say even doing some upgrading on the county parks should be a higher priority than a library.
Hot debate. What do you think?
15 
18