You’ve read in the news section of the Tribune about our city manager’s attempt to fund a library study last Monday. Now you’re going to hear the rest of the story.

The parking lot on North Broadway has been sitting vacant for over twenty years. Although it has been used as a parking lot for years, it has technically been available for development. The problem is that virtually nobody knows that this land has been available and it doesn’t appear that the city has put a price on the property. I know of one group who tried to build a housing project on this land a few years ago but they tell me the city wanted too much money for the land and they could not cash flow the project at the price.

What efforts have the city made to find a suitable developer for this land? Is it possible they have not worked aggressively enough to develop the land because they had a secret plan to put a library on this spot? It would appear that this is the case. In fact, we heard about this three years ago but did not know how far the planning had progressed until a few months ago.

In February, a city official from the library told me that our city manager had promised the library this land on Broadway. I was told that he also promised that the city would build a new $6.5 million building on the site.

The plans, as she outlined them, were to build a 20,000 square foot building with parking, a nice coffee shop, and all the modern features of a modern library. They had even worked out how the project would be marketed to the people of Albert Lea. It would be sold to the voters as a great new addition to our ailing downtown that would work in conjunction with the ACT theater, offer library patrons great views of the lake, and its central location would make it convenient for everyone. No other location was acceptable.

How does this plan fit with other strongly held views in the community? Often heard comments are: (1) we can’t afford a new library right now, (2) don’t we have enough government buildings on the lake already? (3) why would we spend $9.5 million including principal and interest on a new building when there are so many other buildings that could be converted to a library for much less? (4) if library patrons are already coming downtown, how is moving them one block west going to improve the downtown? (5) studies have shown that apartments and condos have four times the economic impact on a downtown as do offices. How does another tax-consuming entity further downtown development? &045; and so on.

Albert Lea is preparing to begin a strategic planning process. We will certainly wish to consider plans for a new public library as a part of this process. Many of us feel that our library staff has done a great job and they have managed their phenomenal growth very well with limited resources. Rather than simply giving up on the existing library location and waiting for the new one to be built, they would be well advised to fine tune what they have and work to achieve a public consensus about future library development. The days are over when one person can simply dictate multi-million dollar expenditures such as this.

Prior to last Monday’s city council meeting, I explained this all to our mayor. I told her the following scenario would likely begin to unfold that evening: First the city manager would ask for approval to spend $25,000 on a new library study. This would quickly result in a plan, a drawing, and a scale model of the new library. This model would have to be site specific and would only fit on the parking lot that had already been promised to the library. Armed with the model, the fact that we had already spent $25,000, and the fact that we already owned the land on Broadway, marketing teams would be formed to build a public consensus and drum up support. I tried to explain to her that this first expenditure would begin a process that would be very difficult to stop once begun. She refused to understand that this entire process was orchestrated several months ago. Maybe she did.

Most of us realize that a new library is probably needed. What is in question is the timing and location. Fortunately, four of our city councilors understood what was happening and stopped this effort in its tracks. We can all thank councilors Erdman, Brooks, Marin and Fjelstad for stopping this juggernaut before it assumed a life of its own. Now we can complete our strategic planning process and take the time to work out a plan for the library that will best meet the needs of Albert Lea and Freeborn County residents.

Tony Trow is an Albert Lea resident and president of Destination: Albert Lea. His column appears Mondays.