Saturday, June 18, 2011

Ebooks, Netflix, and Library Building Projects (Part 59: Woburn Public Library)


Woburn City Council votes in favor of $24 million library renovation. (Woburn Advocate, 6/17/2011

Excerpt:  A deeply divided Woburn City Council last night voted 6-3 in favor of the $24 million library addition and renovation project, with Council President Paul Denaro and Aldermen Richard Gately and Darlene Mercer-Bruen opposed.

Mayor Scott Galvin and several aldermen had proposed a reduced project with a price tag of $15 million.

Early in the meeting, Galvin said, “There will not be money coming from the city for a $24 million project - we cannot afford it.”

However, with time running out for the city’s application for funding for the project from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC), Alderman Raymond Drapeau said, “We need to get Woburn on the list of communities that will share in an estimated $70 million in state funds to be distributed for libraries.

“It will be up to three years before the money becomes available for Woburn, In those three years, we may be in better shape and we may be in worse. But let us let the application go forward, and see what happens down the road. We could be saving the taxpayers of Woburn as much as $10 million.

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