One Metro Councilman says he is going to fight the parish library system’s attempt to move everything from its River Center Branch to a temporary building on Third Street for more than two years while workers demolish and rebuild the current branch when the proposal comes up at Wednesday’s Metro Council meeting.
Councilman Buddy Amoroso says “it’s fiscal insanity” to spend at least $600,000 in moving expenses and leasing the Kress Building at 447 Third St. for 30 months while a new library is built for about $19 million, which will include remediation, demolition, construction, furniture, fixtures, equipment, design and engineering.
“I have a real problem when you go in and tear down a building, a perfectly good asset,” says Amoroso. He would like to see the building renovated, as opposed to demolished for a new branch.
“It’s Baton Rouge’s version of a field of dreams. No one uses the library right now, and they are thinking if you build it they will come,” Amoroso says.
Spencer Watts, director of the East Baton Rouge Parish Public Library System, says in a statement that the issue of building a new branch versus renovating the current building was put to bed years ago after several thorough studies.
“The overwhelming consensus by professionals was replacing the Library was the best option in terms of functionality, service and return on investment for our patrons and the community as a whole,” Watts says.
The council in 2010 approved the project, Watts notes, and at “this late juncture, a change would be counter-productive and possibly derail the project.”
He adds the River Center Branch has seen rising circulation and visitor counts, noting more than 92,000 library patrons went to that branch in 2015, and the library system anticipates that number rising when the new branch opens.
Also at Wednesday’s meeting, the council will discuss an item by Councilwoman Chauna Banks-Daniel to create a four-member committee to review the process by which a new council member is appointed when a vacancy occurs.
Banks-Daniel voiced some concern over the process when the board late last year began discussing how to replace former members and current state Reps. Ronnie Edwards and C. Denise Marcelle, who were elected to the state Legislature in the 2015 elections. But she was quickly rebuffed by other council members who felt there was no need to discuss the process.
Banks-Daniel called the replacing Edwards and Marcelle a “chaotic situation,” and she wants more transparency in the process. Many people in those districts did not know that any council members, not just the vacating ones, could nominate a person for the seat, Banks-Daniel says.
She also wants to establish a timeline for when the vacating council members would have to name their recommendations, noting that if Marcelle had not mentioned former Capital Area Transit Board President Isaiah Marshall by name at one meeting, no one may have known Marshall was Marcelle’s choice to replace her until the day she left office or the day the item came up for a vote.
She has asked fellow council members Trae Welch, Donna Collins-Lewis and Lamont Cole to join her on the committee.
The council will also vote on whether to award Portland, Oregon-based Fregonese Associates a $100,000 contract to begin implementing a new parking plan for downtown Baton Rouge.
Among the items set to be introduced: a proposal for the council to once again vote on the funding mechanism for the City Court Technology Fund, and whether to a give final approval to amending the Urban Design and Neighborhoods Element of the Comprehensive Plan to adopt the master plan for the Baton Rouge Health District. The Technology Fund is set for a public hearing on Feb. 10, while the Health District will be voted on at the Feb. 17 meeting.
The council meeting Wednesday at 4 p.m. on the third floor of City Hall, 222 St. Louis St. See the full agenda.
—Ryan Broussard
