When even the weather cooperates on April Fools’ Day, you know you’re doing something right.
Friday’s ceremonial placement of the first steel beam in the new H. Leslie Perry Memorial Library showed that all of us in Vance County are doing something right. It was a great day to be in Henderson and a great chance to dream of a fantastic future for our city, our county and our children.
It was a day of triumph for the driving force behind the Embassy Square Cultural Center, Sam Watkins, and for the Embassy Square Foundation’s executive director, Kathy Powell.
It was a day of deserved acclaim for Minerva McGregor, whose $1 million gift in memory of son Clifford helped push fundraising past the $8 million needed to build the library and the adjoining gallery, to be named McGregor Hall.
It was a day of excitement, marked by the rare visit of a sitting U.S. senator to Henderson. (But next time, Sen. Dole, you might want to skip references to Pillowtex; you risk rekindling bitterness at the way you and every other official elected statewide rushed to the aid of those laid-off workers but didn’t lift a finger for Harriet & Henderson and Americal workers.)
Given that even Mother Nature didn’t see fit to rain on the Embassy parade Friday, we’re hesitant to throw cold water on the celebratory mood. But we wouldn’t be doing our job if we just played cheerleader.
The new library will be a crucial addition to the community when it opens in February or March. We need a library with more space, more books, more computers, more services and more resources.
Before the Embassy folks move forward with Phase 2, however, we urge them to show enough faith in Henderson to give the community at large a voice in what comes next. Is a performance hall the best use of that premium city real estate, as well as the $6 million or so it will take to build the theater? Are there other facilities, recreational or otherwise, that we need more downtown? Instead of rushing to build anything else, should we use the momentum and excitement surrounding the library to propel an endowment fundraising drive that could ease the financial burden of operating the bigger building?
We don’t have all the answers. Isn’t it possible that the Embassy Square Foundation doesn’t either?
We hope the foundation’s leaders will dare to be truly great by listening to the opinions and desires of the people of the community they love so much.