Statement before Glenn
A. Walsh
Allegheny
Regional
Asset District:
Abandonment
of Telephone: 412-561-7876
Historic Hazelwood & Electronic Mail: < gawalsh@andrewcarnegie.cc >
Lawrenceville Internet Web Site: <
http://www.andrewcarnegie.cc >
Library Buildings 2004 March 29
Good evening. I am Glenn A.
Walsh of
Despite the opposition of the
majority of residents in the
The Lawrenceville Library is a
true library pioneer:
Ø
First of more
than one hundred neighborhood branch libraries built by Andrew Carnegie in the
Ø
First specifically designed and constructed library
Children’s Room
Ø
First library
specifically designed to allow the public direct access to the book stacks,
including a central circulation desk
Ø
Building design
became a model for Carnegie Libraries throughout the world
Next to the historic
Lawrenceville Library building is the
Although Carnegie Library
complains there is little parking near the Library, Library patrons regularly
use the community center’s parking lot next to the Library, including during
special events in the Library’s large auditorium;
Since the City only gives the
Library system $40,000 per year, the people’s representatives in City Council
no longer have much influence over Carnegie Library management decisions. With
this year’s RAD grant to Carnegie Library being more than $16 million, the
Board of Directors of the Allegheny Regional Asset District is the only funding
body that can realistically influence the use, by Carnegie Library, of taxpayer
money.
At last year’s Carnegie
Library budget hearing before the RAD Board, Library Director Herb Elish said
he would not move the Hazelwood Library until the neighborhood was consulted.
Yet, at the neighborhood meeting in September, he told the audience that the
decision to move the library had already been made! How can this, truly, be
considered “consulting with the neighborhood”?
I ask that this Board tell, yes tell, Carnegie Library that they
must hold at least one widely-publicized meeting, open to the general public, before any official, or even
unofficial, decisions are made to move a library. And, unlike the token
neighborhood meeting in Hazelwood last year, you must tell Carnegie Library
that they must really listen to the wishes of the majority of residents of the
neighborhood. In the case of Lawrenceville, it is urgent that this be done
right away.
If this Board does nothing,
you will be allowing a bureaucracy to utilize taxpayer money with no
accountability to the people—once again, taxation without representation!
Thank you.
gaw