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| Post Number: 21
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Montyman 
Group: Members
Posts: 421
Joined: Dec. 2003
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Posted on: Jan. 31 2004,4:29 pm |
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Oops--wrong site.
That was the north Broadway site...
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Ignorant men raise questions that wise men answered a thousand years ago. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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| Post Number: 22
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BeBack
Unregistered
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Posted on: Feb. 01 2004,6:21 pm |
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I've been told that their is space in the existing city hall building that the library could use but our librarian has refused it. I'm not opposed to a new library if one is truely needed but I don't think Albert Lea or the County are NOT in any position to be building any more new buildings WITH TAX BASE THE DON'T HAVE!
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| Post Number: 23
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funny guy
Unregistered
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Posted on: Feb. 01 2004,7:20 pm |
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Don't worry, the tax base is booming in Albert Lea. In fact, the city issued 1, yes 1 whole new house building permit in Jan!
I just hope it wasn't an outhouse, you never know in Lea. 
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| Post Number: 24
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jimhanson
Group: Moderator
Posts: 8491
Joined: Aug. 2003
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Posted on: Feb. 02 2004,10:43 am |
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If you click on the link in the first post, the benefits and costs of each site come up. The current site ranks well (most important criteria, it has a lake view!)  (sarcasm)--but the cost is high--$4,940,000 to reinforce the floors (?), and a total cost of $10,392,636--including $3,200,000 for new city offices.
I didn't see the proposal for moving the fire department out of City Hall--no need for them to be there operationally--the library can either take the vacated space, or move the city offices down to the fire department space.
The fire department could use a better location--perhaps on the Farmland site--there is access to Main street, there are many alternate routes to avoid train tieups. The fire department is space-constrained anyway, and moving the department out of City hall frees up a lot of parking. Building a firehouse has got to be cheaper than building new offices.
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"If you want to anger a Conservative, tell him a lie. If you want to anger a LIBERAL, tell him the TRUTH!"
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| Post Number: 25
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Tom Newell
Unregistered
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Posted on: Feb. 02 2004,11:53 am |
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Jim a new, more useful, fire station would be something I would support before I could support a new (monument) library building. The question is do we need either? It is my understanding that the existing City Hall building has 20% of its square footage either underused or unused. If this is the case we would be better off developing this existing space and saving the tax payers the capital expense of new construction for a date when it would be more economically feasable for this community to bear. Locating dead records and files to an off site warehouse is one hell of a lot less expensive than continuously building new government buildings to basically warehouse old records and files.
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| Post Number: 26
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guest
Unregistered
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Posted on: Feb. 02 2004,12:03 pm |
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you could use the fire and pension fund to build a new fire station which would not cost the tax payers any additional money. They you could remodel the existing building to make additional room for the library. However, I still believe that an independant community group should be formed to look at the library and see if their is more room that could be used by rearranging things in the current location.
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| Post Number: 27
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jimhanson
Group: Moderator
Posts: 8491
Joined: Aug. 2003
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Posted on: Feb. 02 2004,12:34 pm |
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Tom--you are correct--I have many previous posts questioning whether additional space can be found.
I don't know of a lot of unused space in the building, other than the old bookmobile garage under the Childrens library. I do often question just what the library should be, though. SHOULD we be providing free internet service for the community, or should that be a function of an "internet cafe"? SHOULD we be providing free VHS and DVD movies to the community (the report seems to indicate that we have TWICE as many as most libraries), or should that be left to video rental stores? Same thing for free music?
The Children's library seems to be not nearly as crowded as the adult library--but part of the rationale for expansion is that it is used for "storytime". Should we be building a $10,000,000 building for a 20 minute session once or twice a week, or could they just schedule the multi-purpose meeting room, only feet away? The report mentions "CD ROM games, available for checkout or use at the library". SHOULD we be providing games, especially in a library environment?
You are also correct in asking if some files and storage can be moved off-site--or perhaps down to the engineering vehicle site. The guest poster that posted after your post, and while I was typing this one, called for a citizen's committee. I believe we need one. HOW IN THE WORLD CAN YOU MAKE PLANS FOR A FACILITY UNTIL YOU HAVE A CONSENSUS ON WHAT THAT FACILITY WILL BE?
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"If you want to anger a Conservative, tell him a lie. If you want to anger a LIBERAL, tell him the TRUTH!"
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| Post Number: 28
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Tom Newell
Unregistered
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Posted on: Feb. 02 2004,1:22 pm |
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One doesn't need a hallway on either side of the central stairway. That is space readily available to the existing liabrary space which wouldn't effect anyones space. Now that I have given you a start keep looking.
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| Post Number: 29
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Frustrated
Unregistered
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Posted on: Feb. 02 2004,3:00 pm |
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There needs to be a referendum or something to disallow the cost of the study from recovery through tax revenues and to require whoever authorized it to pay for it themselves.
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| Post Number: 30
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Frustrated
Unregistered
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Posted on: Feb. 02 2004,3:05 pm |
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Why would they want to move the firestaton now when they can wait and build a shiney new one after the new library is finished?
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