CITY COUNCIL TO DISCUSS TEMPORARY HOME FOR LIBRARY

  

The Brenham City Council will be looking for a temporary new home for the Nancy Carol Roberts Library when they meet Thursday at city hall.

The City Council is expected to go into executive session to discuss acquiring the Boettecher Building to house the city library while the search continues for a new home.

The library staff says the current library is not adequate to meet the current needs and is flawed in numerous ways.  The library, at 100 Martin Luther King Boulevard, was built in 1970.   Discussions about building a new library have come up several times in the past several years.  The Library Board and the Fortnightly Club help the city run the library.

The City Council is also looking at renewing the guidelines for the city’s tax phase in policy. 

The Council is expected to approve on its second reading the new speed limits on U.S.. Highway 290 from the east city limit to Business 290 West.

The Brenham City Council meets Thursday at one at city hall.

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9 Comments

  1. The City of Brenham has an agenda they are not telling. They want the entire fireman’s park block available for new construction. They are going to build on the vacant areas created by the past demolition projects. They removed the little league fields, the little league building, the tennis courts, the pool and now the library. That’s an awful lot of empty space created for no reason? Oh, and now they need more tennis courts? go figure…

    Why does the city have buildings that reach their useful life but private homes can be over 100 years old? Why are city buildings the only buildings that can not be remodeled. Why are we willing to spend so much money tearing down assets that are owned and payed for by taxpayers of Brenham. Would you tear down your home to build a new one?..No, most would sell it and use the proceeds to fund a new home. Would you tear down your home because the roof leaks? No, you would fix the roof.

    I would guess the old library does not fit the architectural guidelines set forth by the study that cost over $100K and completed by people who have no vested interested in our town! Does anyone remember the news article or letter where the city asked the Fortnightly club to come up with reasons why they need a new library?

  2. The NCRM Library does need a new home; the current building is small and those “numerous flaws” are from previous remodels that were not sufficient and has left the building in a condition that cannot be fixed with a remodel or expansion. To build a new library is expensive and will have effects on the local community, however the benefits out-weigh the expense. To those that say the building is large enough and space is not being utilized, have you been there when workers are trying to return books to the shelves or preforming inventory? The stacks are placed closely together and spacing is limited. Also the premise needs to be handicap accessible from the outside as well as the floor plan, which currently the floor plan barely passes. I don’t know all the answers, but I do know that the most utilitarian solution is for a new building and location all together.

  3. Enough is enough. We are going to disgard another City building that was built in 1970 to throw an unknown amount of money at a building that was built in 1983? Does that sound logical? If our current library needs improvements, make them, don’t just build a new one. The City has ample space to expand the building if needed. Remember the City Pool? It’s gone. Expand if that is the issue. If it is mechanical, update it. The City of Brenham has no concept of maintaining infastructure. “Flawed in numerous ways”? What does that mean? FIX IT!!!
    What is the plan for the current Library? Noone knows. Maybe give it away. I would love to have it. Maybe I can lease it for $1 a year and put in a health clinic? Now that I think about it, this sounds like a great idea. Since it is “flawed in numerous ways”, maybe I can get the city to just sell to me cheap and I can tear it down and build a “boutique hotel”. Sounds stupid if you are spending your own money. You can’t make this stuff up.

  4. The city police department moved into the old city hall while the new building was being built. So no rent was paid.

  5. I agree with TJ. Let’s do some remodeling. There is plenty of space in the current library. Perhaps we should challenge the contractors in the area to come up with a plan that would help with this remodeling. I see no reason to pay rent when we have a perfectly good place now.
    As for the comment from DJJones. As a county resident, I feel that I do contribute to the city-maybe not in taxes, but I do shop here, eat here and volunteer here. Yes the taxes in town are high, but they ain’t cheap in the county either! Problem is, people are relocating here from Houston, but are not working here-so they are not making the small wages that we make here, but are building huge homes that are raising OUR taxes. I bet you that DJJones was not born and raised here. I have seen too many families selling their property, property that has been in the family for years, because people are relocating here, building upwards of million dollar homes and making it unaffordable for us to keep our property because of the taxes.

  6. Wow! It seems like there is a LOT of wasted space in the current library. I’ve seen city libraries in much older and smaller buildings deal with their space issues in very creative ways to benefit their patrons. I understand the need to be more accessible, but this is a large building that has several rooms and coridors that are rarely used on a daily basis. I challenge the library board and staff and city officials to come up with a remodeling plan for the inside of the existing building to create more space instead of jumping on the bandwagon of wanting ‘new’ and ‘more’ at the expense of the taxpayers.

  7. Here we go again temporary home which will cost rent last time we used a temporary home for the police department ended up being five years are we goofing to pay rent in this temporary home for five years? Sounds like a waste of taxpayer money. Then they wonder why building permits are down in the city no one wants to build where you are being taxed for things county residents use and they pay no taxes for? That is why my house in Brenham will soon be on the market can’t stand this taxing and spending why can’t we be a bit more conservative with taxpayer money. I bet if it was councils money they wouldn’t spend like this!

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