Working through the backlog

I'm trying to work through the backlog of articles I hoped to comment upon. Today I reached into the grab bag and pulled out an article on...

...a potential new Waxhaw library!

Jason DeBruyn of The Enquirer-Journal had an article (far more timely back when it was originally published on May 25th) on the potential new library for Waxhaw.

MONROE -- If Waxhaw puts up some cash, it might get a new, much larger, library.

County commissioners discussed the possibility of replacing the existing Waxhaw branch with one about seven times larger, but challenged the Waxhaw commissioners to front some town money to help pay for it.

“The communities that are benefitting, should pay a little more,” Commissioner Lanny Openshaw said. “We want to help them with a library if they are willing to help themselves.”

And Mayor Gardner & town commissioner Erin Kirkpatrick picked up the baton and ran with it.

Two Waxhaw board members, Erin Kirkpatrick and Mayor Daune Gardner, attended the commissioner meeting; they agreed to supplementing a new library with town funds.

“Waxhaw absolutely recognizes the value of a library,” Kirkpatrick said. “It can be an extremely valuable asset to our community.”

I'm not sure if this was an official pledge of town monies or not; I suspect the latter as the article later specifies the town board will get an offer to the county board within 60 days. I've got an email out to both Mayor Gardner and Commissioner Kirkpatrick to see if they can clarify and answer some other questions.

As for the library, Waxhaw's library is very small and could use an upgrade to accommodate our growing town. However, given the financial times, I would like to learn a little more about the costs to Waxhaw (and the county for that matter) for this project beforehand. Especially considering other counties are struggling to keep their libraries alive.

With both state and federal taxes destined to rise given the out-of-control spending at those levels of government, it would be nice if local spending remains in check so as not to add additional tax burdens down the road.

In other library news, the Library Association of Waxhaw recently picked the winners of their art and poetry contests, in which the winners will be featured in a 2011 calendar to raise money for the new library. Congratulations to the winners! If you in any way want to support a new library, please support their bookstore downtown or buy a 2011 calendar. The more private support the library gets, the better.

I looked into entering one of my son's paintings into the running, but conflicting answers as to whether scanned art was allowed (I wasn't going to part with the original) and my wondering whether the masterpiece in question truly jived with the theme of "Passport to Adventure" was enough to subsequently push it onto the back burner and ultimately forgotten. You be the judge -- adventurous enough?


As of yet, it's still untitled.

UPDATE 7/17: I stumbled across this page today & it appeared to be all screwed up in Firefox; more than half the text was missing. I've had these strange problems with Blogspot from time to time. I think it's fixed now, but it's a testament to the number of visitors that this went a month without anyone letting me know.