“No matter that it lengthens the conversation”: June, 2014 Steering Committee Final Report

The Rockport Library Committee has been considering the future of the library over the past four years, expending over $15,000 doing so. The Committee will recommend a warrant article to the Rockport Select Board Monday, July 14.

The article is inadequate. It is generating enraged responses from citizens. It is creating an environment out of which nothing will happen to a library that needs attention. This proposed article continues to avoid the necessity to find compromise between residents whose strongly held beliefs have been known throughout these four years.

A warrant article, as it currently reads, asking “Do you approve a Library at the former Rockport Elementary School site”, cannot be answered meaningfully. The question is void of context. It does not confront voters with the tough decision of what services they want from their library and the price they are willing to pay for those services. 

Wants and willingness to pay must be dealt with concurrently. Voting without full consideration of desires compromised by willingness to pay is a disservice to the library and the community.

A Steering Committee appointed by the Library Committee in March, 2014, acknowledged in its June, 2014 final report that their recommendation of a new library with a capacity of up to 14,000 square feet at the former RES site did not consider other important criteria. Specifically: the economic benefits of the possible library buildings and sites and the “Soft criteria—residents conceptions and tolerance for costs, the legacy that a library leaves (for better or worse); the relative ability to raise donations; the difficult trade-offs between cost and value, the present and future.”

The Steering Committee’s report said it is up to the Library Committee to evaluate its recommendation against these criteria “no matter that it lengthens the conversation.”

The Library Committee, in its one-week rush to submit a warrant article to the Select Board, did not do so. The Select Board should not feel compelled to put a warrant article to vote that is meaningless and detrimental to progress on an improved library.

The Select Board should do what the Library Steering committee recommended and the Library Committee ignored. “Lengthen the conversation.”

The Select Board should ensure that different plans are presented, clearly elaborating what citizens get and what they have to give up with each plan. Only upon doing so, should a warrant article for citizens to approve be placed on the ballot.

Richard M. Anderson lives in Rockport.