Dispute boils about downtown library funding

The decision to rebuild the downtown library has tensions high on the East Baton Rouge Library Board of Control, which played out in a terse e-mail exchange between President Kizzy Payton and board member Stanford Bardwell the day before the board’s July 15 meeting. In the e-mail from Bardwell to Payton, and copied to executive director David Farrar and the other board members, Bardwell requests information that supports the demand for the spatial needs of the downtown library. He also says he wanted an “alternate design option” to be presented by an architect other than Trey Trahan, who volunteered time to develop another concept “at a great deal less money” than the $19 million that has already been set aside for the project. “Surely you must agree that we have an obligation to the tax payers who fund our construction to at least receive information that can accomplish all cosmetic and functional upgrades at a cost of less than $10M.” He adds, “As a board, we do not have any obligation to Trahan (Architects) to help him win some award for a fancy building that is overbuilt. Nor do we have any obligation to satisfy Davis Rhorer’s (executive director of the Downtown Development District) ego or wish list or Adam Knapps (sic; BRAC executive director), because it is their job to ask for the moon in hopes of getting something better than is there now.” For the full story, click here.—Rebekah Allen