In the Arena with Chris Collins: New library a rare opportunity

Good government isn’t always about doing something. Often, it’s about not doing the wrong thing for the wrong reasons.

And then there are also those rare moments where an opportunity emerges that makes so much sense, it would be foolish not to take it.

This is where the city known as the town of Greenfield appears to find itself in the quest to build a new public library.

For as long as I’ve been covering my hometown, a new library is a project that has always seemed to simmer on the political back burner. It was always viewed as a priority by its supporters, but not necessarily by town officials struggling to put out one financial fire after another.

Those challenges still exist and always will, but not enough, I believe, to warrant the level of debate this particular project has generated, especially in the wake of mounting evidence that, despite being badly needed, is a whole lot more affordable than previously believed.

That analysis is not rooted in emotion. Far from it. I could not personally care less if Greenfield builds a new library. I’m not paying for it, and I’ll probably never use it. Nor have I been wild about some of the strong arm tactics being used to push for its passage.

Not that long ago, I wrote that this project seemed like another example of richer people telling poorer people how they should spend their money. I got chastised for allegedly trying to use the library to trigger a “class warfare” debate, but in reality, it was an expression of concern about Greenfield continuing to spend money on big ticket items at a time when people are having problems keeping up with their current tax bills.

Those bills haven’t gone down much, if at all, but the picture regarding this project’s potential impact on Greenfield’s debt burden has clarified substantially, to the point where voting it down doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

First, there is the $9 million state library construction grant, the eligibility deadline for which has been extended until April. That’s always been a talking point, but it has greater significance now because it effectively cuts the cost of the project down to about half of what it would be were the town to go it alone.

It is also a grant that the town will probably never see again if it fails to make that deadline, but even with it, that still leaves roughly $10 million nut for Greenfield to cover for the library as well as another possibly $8 million to relocate the fire station — all of which Mayor Bill Martin says can all fit into the town’s existing debt structure without the need for a debt exclusion.

“That’s not coming from me, that’s from bond counsel,” Martin said. “You don’t get higher than that.”

I’m not sure many people understand how rare it is to be able to do a project of this size within the limits imposed by Proposition 2½. It’s the fiscal equivalent of “Haley’s Comet” — the kind of opportunity that simply doesn’t come around very often, if ever.

Martin understands that, which is why he’s been pushing the library project the hardest, which may or may not be helping the cause–lest we forget that the people who will decide this issue are the same ones who slapped him with a “no confidence” vote and asked him to resign only a few months ago.

I know there are at least a couple of people on that council who don’t believe that any numbers coming out of Martin’s office are worth the paper on which they are written. Those opinions aren’t likely to change before next month’s vote, but the council did go along with His Honor’s proposal to rescind over $8 million in previously approved borrowing authority, which lends even more credibility to the affordability argument.

And let’s not forget the way the community has supported this effort with their own dollars. I wrote previously that well-heeled library supporters needed to put some “skin in the game,” and they surely have, to the tune of, by last count, over $650,000 in private donations, which to my knowledge, is the largest private fundraising effort ever for a municipal project. The community support is clearly there, although there are no doubt still those for whom staying in the current library remains the sentimental first choice. That’s understandable, but what makes more sense — spending $7 million to make an inadequate facility accessible, or spending a couple of million more and getting a fully accessible, state of the art library this community can truly be proud of?

There are too many times communities have to make tough decisions with potentially devastating implications, but this isn’t one of them. In fact, this may be the closest thing to a capital “no brainer” Greenfield has seen in a generation. Hopefully. its “leaders” will recognize that before it’s too late.