[StBernard] St. Bernard Library

Westley Annis Westley at da-parish.com
Sat Feb 16 09:10:01 EST 2008


There is a library board and maybe Ms Janet or another board member will
clarify. The library board purchased the land for a new library with
dedicated tax monies (dont know if its sales tax or property tax) because we
needed a larger library and the water board needed an expansion.
Presumably, the water board was going ahead with its expansion (and
consolidation of water board offices from the government complex building
into the water board building on Palmisano). I agree that we should ask the
library board for more information about the funding of the land purchase
and with our new revenue/tax base, how long would it be before we could
begin construction on a new library. With all the FEMA monies and donations
for other causes, perhaps we could start a fund drive for our public
library. I think we need a separate public library; separate from the
public school library. We need to keep our library monies separate from the
school board mon ies, and re-assess where we stand with the funding of the
land purchase and the library construction. I also question what is the
future intentions with the library land if not for a library.

At the last council meeting Public School Superintendent Ms Doris Voiter
gave an excellent presentation on the Lacoste Campus expansion of the
Unified Public School Chalmette High School. The Lacoste Campus is now
designed to be built as a 9th grade campus and cultural arts complex,
swimming pool, and library. Ms Voiter and the administration were
presenting the idea to have the St Bernard Parish Library on the ground
floor of the school library and the student library on the 2nd floor.
Councilman Henderson motioned for the council not to take action on this
proposal with the public and school library until the library board had an
opportunity to see the proposal and discuss/recommend.

Having an 8th grader and a 6th grader with plans to attend Chalmette High, I
personally think this is a very bad consolidation of funding. There is no
way the school system could protect our 9th graders from the general public;
from a public health point of view and from a safety point (what with all
the shootings nation wide and with all the vagrants and transients in our
community now). Ironically, after last week's council meeting and library
presentation, I received notification that the school board needed my
children's immunization records again and we all know what a public health
risk there is on school campuses with contagious disease. SJK





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