The Ester library and money issues

The John Trigg Ester Library recently got an appropriation approved by the Alaska Legislature and past the governor's desk. The same appropriation, for $50,000, made it through the legislature last year, but was vetoed by Sarah Palin. This year, Governor Parnell went ahead and allowed it. It's not a huge chunk of change (to the state, that is—to the library, it's a LOT of money) and it will mean jobs in Ester and a bunch of work done on the library. The library itself, of course, will take much more money to do right. And by right, I mean to take into consideration the various green and economic considerations deliberated on over the years of working out the design details.

One concern I have is that we have decided to eliminate the second floor so as to reduce the cost and increase the library floor space. This means that our rental spaces are gone, and that was one major way we hoped to keep the library self-sufficient financially. The construction cost reduction by doing this is significant: perhaps 30 to 40 percent off the top; but without those spaces we would have to rely exclusively on donations and fundraisers to provide an operating budget. Perhaps we can change the design on the main floor to include one small rental space. If we can't rent it, well, so be it, but at least having it will enable some money to come in from time to time, and I think that's important.

It takes all the running you can do…

"… to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!" —The Red Queen, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll)

Yes. Well, that's me right now. The lallapalooza seems to be shaping up nicely, and all sorts of interesting auction items are coming in. Hans is doing most of the solicitation, but Debbie is working on the dessert people and Amy is rounding up apron-makers. (The dessert auction and the apron show are gonna be kick-ass!)

I was in the midst of finishing up the February Republic when I got a call from Rep. Guttenberg's office about the grant request I'd sent in a couple of months ago to get starter money for the library building. I'd requested too little, of course (I seem to have inherited my mother's Yankee scrime muscles), but it seems that the federal stimulus package does include money for libraries, so we adjusted the request and submitted it, along with several letters of support, to Senator Begich's office, in the hopes that he'll support (and then that we'll get) funding for the Ester library.

It's a funny thing. I realized yesterday, as we were heading home, that the library is far more important to me than The Ester Republic, say, or my art. The Ester library is something that can benefit a lot of people for a long, long time, in a lot of ways. It feels like a Right Thing.

I get a little worried when I think about how small the actual membership is (i.e., that we won't get taken seriously simply because we are such a small library), but we live in a small community, and still, people all over use it. So although the membership is around 150, the actual population it could serve is around two to three thousand. Of course, small and local is what a local community library is all about. (One of the things I absolutely LOVED about Seattle was the network of neighborhood libraries throughout the city. It was absolutely great. Such a pedestrian-friendly place, despite the population and square acreage.)

Unfortunately, as I said in the proposal, it can't really serve the population adequately because we are crammed into such a tiny space. There's just not enough room to make proper use of the library. (We NEED a couch--but first, we need space in which to put it! Plus all those books--about twice as many as we currently have space for!)

The meeting to vote on incorporation is this Sunday (take note, dear readers: Hartung Hall, 4 pm, downtown Ester). Plus, Matt Prouty of USKH is going to be there with the new and improved version of the new and improved concept of the building. (Gary Pohl is taking a well-deserved vacation in Hawaii, although he foolishly brought his cell phone with him so people at work could call him. Thoughtful and all that, but I can't imagine he was too happy about the rush estimate that Begich's office needed us to provide--we had to ask him a couple of questions on it.) As I told Jared VanderWeele, who sent the estimate to me, these guys ROCK!

Oh, right: veto news

There's one thing of note that I haven't commented on yet: Sarah Palin vetoed (with no explanation as of yet) the $50,000 that David Guttenberg, Joe Thomas, and others worked so hard on. A little tiny bit of money, in the scheme of things, and very important to the Ester community, but -- struck from the budget with a gubernatorial flourish of the Big Red Veto Pen.

Drat.

Well, it's certainly not going to stop the Ester library from being built, although it will probably put a bit of a kibosh on the schedule. But there are other, more important places we can apply to, such as the Rasmuson Foundation. As Niilo Koponen says, Onward!

State moola

According to yesterday's News-Miner, the Senate budget bill, SB 221, includes $50,000 for the Ester library. What they didn't say is that the Ester Volunteer Fire Department also was included, with approximately $300,000 for the building expansion and improvements. (This was an early inclusion, so there weren't any surprises there, but it is yet another Interior project--a much-needed one--that made it this far.)

Here's a tip of the hat and a BIG THANK YOU to Senator Joe Thomas, member of the Senate Finance Committee, who went to bat for us on these, and to Representative David Guttenberg, who helped us on the library. Special thanks to Jeff Stepp, aide to Guttenberg!

At this point, the funds are still not guaranteed—the bill has to get past the House again and then make it by the governor, but these two projects are worthy ones and benefit residents from Nenana to North Pole, and all the tourists and visitors in between.