I’ve read the Steering Committee’s report. I applaud them for all their hard work.

Ultimately, the Library Committee is giving me one choice: A brand new building to be erected on the RES site, up to 14,500 square feet.

Despite what the LC report says, we do have another choice.

We can add ample needed additional space to the existing Rockport Public Library. We can add more spacious meeting area — quiet reading area. We can add bathrooms — add a large staff use only area.

We can thoughtfully add more parking space.

And we can achieve all this, for a mere fraction of the new large building proposed by the Library Committee.

The additional new space will allow a complete redesign of the existing library spaces that will transform the Rockport Public Library (and the library could remain open during the project).

And we can do all this while retaining our decades-old Rockport Public Library; an important piece of the fabric of our unique Rockport Harbor-Village center, an asset to all of us in the Town of Rockport.

Tom Young lives in Rockport.