You might have just walked by them, like most booths at the fair, without turning your head or making eye contact.

But you still have the chance to talk with them.

In hopes of getting more public support and input on a library project, the library board has set up a booth outside of the Albert Lea Public Library. They did the same at the fairgrounds last week.

The purpose of the booth, according to Gail Batt, the county representative on the library board, is to get public input on the $25,000 library feasibility study the city council approved at its last meeting.

The study will look at four or five different sites in Albert Lea as possible locations for a new library. It will also estimate and examine the costs, feasibility and specifications for libraries at each location.

&uot;We want to find out what the public thinks,&uot; Batt said.

The study didn’t pass when it was first brought to the city council, because it only would have examined one site: an open space on Broadway Avenue between Fountain and Water streets. City councilmen Jeff Fjelstad, Al Brooks, Randy Erdman and George Marin all voted against that study because, for the most part, none of them felt that there had been enough public input on possible sites. For many of them, it was the first time they’d heard about the possibility.

The study’s scope was then changed to examine four or more sites. Erdman supported the new change and the study was approved by a 4-3 vote.

The most popular suggestions, according to Batt, have been to use the Vault/Freeborn Bank building, the old high school, the soon-to-be-abandoned Wal-Mart building,

the North Broadway site and scenarios where city offices would move and the library would expand in its existing location.

But some other interesting ideas have been thrown into the mix. Batt said one man suggested putting it on the Farmland site.

According to Harlan Bang, also a library board member, some people have suggested bringing the library out of town, to Clarks Grove or Hartland. Bang stressed the importance of keeping the library downtown &045; something the board has been adamant about.

City councilors Fjelsand and Marin have said, in council meetings, that a study is not a good idea in hard economic times. They also argue that the cost of a library could possibly increase taxes, another line on a tax form that which includes a school referendum, a courthouse and will likely see increased city taxes.

Possibilities mentioned for funding have included using the police and fire pension fund refund received in 2000. Using that fund would involve no increase in taxes.

But Bang and Batt both said that the space at the library isn’t enough to serve the public effectively.

Other possibilities mentioned were the West Clinic building on Fountain Street and Hwy. 13, a lot at the intersection of interstates 35 and 90 and others.

(Contact Peter Cox at peter.cox@albertleatribune.com or 379-3439.)