I was thinking that county and city officials as well as the Sentinel are using people's disgust over county commission as a way to sneak metro in.

It seems that there is a political vacuum and all kinds of things are being resurrected.

Like the downtown library. It is making a comeback also.

Rachel, this is a test of your addiction. Will you be up to the task? Take a Zoloft and say to yourself, "I can do it, I don't have to comment".

The KNS reports today:

But when and if city and county governments agree to build one, the Knox County Public Library Foundation will be ready to try to raise enough money to pay one third of the cost.

"What we want to do is to be in place when, hopefully, there is an effort to build a new central library," said Ginna Mashburn, chairwoman of Friends of the Library, the existing nonprofit that's playing a key role in organizing the foundation.

"This is a worthwhile effort," said Ragsdale, who had to shelve a 2004 proposal for a new library.

"The main library is our most visited location, and we've simply outgrown it," Ragsdale said. "If there were going to be a new library, there would have to be substantial private funding, and widespread citizen support. With budget constraints as they are, private fundraising must lead the way."

A question, The library will cost between 30 to 57 million dollars, meaning probably 57 million. Will it make property taxes go up? Or will it be like the Midway Industrial Park, that also cost 57 million dollars, somehow off the books and having no relation to property taxes.

Isn't it odd that only the 57 million dollar Sheriff's Department pension is the only thing that will make property taxes go up?

You have to love Mayor Ragsdale, he has invented a new form of math. Ragsdale Math. Not everything on the budget makes taxes go up, only certain things.

I'm not opposed to government-funded libraries. I think that is a legitimate and useful public function. What bothers me is the form that these libraries seem to take today. In my home town in Indiana, our taxpayer-funded library included a cafe that was indistinguishable from the kind found in your average Borders or B&N. That irked me.

I would like to have a fancy new library like Blount has, but the question is how to pay for and is it just someone's political shrine. What to me seems a waste in Knoxville is senior centers and new libraries in almost every single community and letting the downtown library remain shabby. The seniors could actually have a room in the library that serves the same purpose as a whole new building. But I think the centers are part of Ragsdale's shrine.

But don't make it voluntary, make it mandatory.

Heck of a way to keep out the bums, Niner. -- s.

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should there be a fee to use the downtown library?
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Would you want this to apply at the 20+ branches (coming to a former cow pasture near you) ? Grumbling about relative chump change for a single downtown library while patting the voluminous branch system we have on the back is a fairly ridiculous way to pass the time.