Libraries by their nature are important repositories of history, but some city leaders squirmed through the Embassy Square history lesson library officials delivered Wednesday night.
Trustees of the H. Leslie Perry Memorial Library said they’re thrilled to see the new building coming together on Breckenridge Street. And they’re happy to be a part of the Embassy project.
But they want it understood that it wasn’t their idea to be part of Embassy Square.
“The library is in the Embassy Block project only at the request of the city,” Tem Blackburn said during the library’s session before the City Council’s Finance and Intergovernmental Relations Committee.
Blackburn said the library board unanimously voted roughly six years ago to expand from 12,600 square feet to more than 34,000 square feet at its current location on Rose Avenue.
The library changed plans and locations to help out Henderson, as Blackburn and his fellow library trustees recalled. The city was counting on public support for the library to jump-start the overall Embassy project, Bill Barnett said.
“The Embassy foundation came along and wanted to enjoy the public support for a new library. I think that’s when the city came to us and said, ‘What about letting us build a library?’ ” Barnett said. “We said fine.”
That history contributed to library trustees’ surprise at having the operational costs of the new library questioned.
“It was something of a shock to our board to hear and read the concerns that the city has about funding the operations,” Blackburn said, after the city persuaded the library board to become a part of the Embassy project. He said it was clear all along that a bigger library would cost more to run.
“Right now the difficulty appears to be entirely the city’s, and it’s the city that got us into it,” Blackburn said.
City Manager Eric Williams said he thought it was understood that the library couldn’t expand on its current site because of the structural limitations of the former grocery store that serves as the library and because of the lack of space.
But the library board was choosing among three building designs from North Carolina State University students for an expansion at the current location on Rose Avenue, library director Jeanne Fox said. A second floor could not be added to the current building, but the design students solved the problem by planning for construction on at least one of the library’s parking lots.
“When we were approached about joining the Embassy project, Mr. (Bennett) Perry was in the process of talking to the folks behind us because we knew that we were going to have to buy that property” for a new parking lot, Fox said.
John Wester, the longest-serving current council member, didn’t remember things that way.
“I don’t question the fact that this was a good arrangement for both of us, but I do take exception to part of what you said,” Wester told the trustees. He said the Rose Avenue site was not feasible for an expansion. “I think you made the allusion that the city begged you to come along on this project. … The library, in order to build a facility, probably was not going to be able to make that (Rose Avenue) facility work. Is that not accurate?”
“No, that’s not accurate,” Blackburn said. He said the library board had gone so far as to vote on a building design.
Williams also said his recollection was that it was not practical for the library to stay on Rose Avenue.
But Barnett said the library could have expanded where it is. “We would not have liked it as much as starting from scratch.”
There was also a conflict of memory over why the new library is across the street from the police station. At one time, Williams said, the library and police station were supposed to be on same side of Breckenridge Street.
Blackburn and Barnett said the big issue was parking, but Williams disagreed.
“The company sometimes that has to be kept at the Police Department was not the most conducive to what you’d like to see at the library. I know for a fact that was talked about, absolutely,” Williams said. “Parking may have been talked about as well. Am I missing the boat here, or was that not the discussion? I know it was.”
Fox noted that the library board established a nonprofit foundation before the Embassy foundation was born. The idea was to raise the money to expand the library and endow its operation.
When the library got involved with the Embassy project, she said, “we thought, ‘This is not going to be perceived well. We cannot move forward like we had planned to do with the library foundation’ because one thing we did not want to appear to be was in competition.”
The library foundation has three pieces: an endowment, a capital campaign and undesignated funds. But because of the effort to avoid competition with the Embassy project, the library hasn’t pushed the foundation beyond an end-of-year mailing.
“We have picked up a little bit of money in an endowment fund, but nowhere near enough” to draw off interest for expenses, Fox said.
“My hat’s off to the Embassy foundation,” Barnett said. When the library board was looking at raising the money for expanding on Rose Avenue, “we could not persuade ourselves that we could do it. Some other people decided to grab that ball and run with it.”
Perry said any effort to push the endowment still could be seen as competing with the Embassy foundation as it raises money for the theater, and the library board doesn’t want to do that.
“We’re a standalone without Phase 2” of the Embassy cultural center, Fox said, “but I know the city’s always indicated big support for the entire Embassy project.”
Yount noted that she’s on record against moving ahead with Phase 2, the theater, until the city’s fund balance is up to 35 percent of its annual general fund budget and the library’s operational funding is secure.
But Yount said the city is lucky to have the library and Embassy foundations and their determined efforts to secure the funding for their projects. “That leaves the City Council with their tenacious efforts.”
“This facility is going to be the newest, shiniest, nicest library in a town of this size and even some larger ones in the state, and it’s going to get some publicity, and people will come to see it,” Barnett said. “You just can’t let it not be operated properly. You can’t have a shell of a building sitting over there open three days a week with an inadequate staff on the days when they’re open. You’ve got to find a way to solve those problems. I think you would be embarrassed.”
“The library has a role to play as well,” Wester said.
“Whatever that is,” Barnett said.
After the meeting, Wester asked Perry, the chairman of the library board, to walk out with him, and they spent at least five minutes talking in private in the council chambers.