Hudson Considers Purchase of Building for Shared Police/Library Facility

Link to October 14 Hudson Star-Observer article, "City still considering purchase of NMC building for police, library".

Excerpt: “We’ve been working on a completely different approach” to remodeling and using the building than the $10 million plan put forth by the Hudson Area Library Foundation in 2008, [Hudson Mayor Dean] Knudson said. “If we go forward with this now, it will look almost nothing like that plan.”

For example, the floors of the building wouldn’t require the expensive reinforcement that was called for the initial proposal, according to the mayor. He said that plan assumed a building filled with seven- or eight-foot shelves stacked with books, but many libraries don’t have shelves that high anymore.

Cue the Dragnet theme music. This article raises a number of red flags for me. "Working on a completely different approach"? And who is "we"? "Look almost nothing like that plan", in reference to the Hudson Area Library Foundation, whose members are, perhaps, as surprised as I am this morning.

Not to be sacreligious, but I hear the words of an old hymn inside my head.

"Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble."

By the way, this is the same mayor who, among others, threw a hissy fit this summer over a deservedly unflattering library assessment report.