The clear choice for our family on August 7th is the Cedar River library. Let’s keep an icon that makes Renton special. Here are some thoughts to consider:
• Those who say we should have known the vote to annex to KCLS meant a new library in a new location are misinformed. The Renton City Council was continuing to discuss keeping the current location as a viable option 15 months after the KCLS annexation election.
The oldest book the library over the Cedar River has is nature itself; the Cedar River is a living media. The Cedar River teaches us a lesson every time we go to the library weather it’s the trees around, the clarity of the water, and the cycle of life of the salmon among numerous other realizations and lessons
On Friday, July 13th my wife and I were on our way to Eastern Washington to go camping. We were driving my Ford F250 with our camper and boat in tow for a week of fun. We left Renton onto I-90 when suddenly we felt like we hit something and our steering wheel veered to the right.
A 74-year-old Renton man, Sam Humphrey, who was reported to police as missing after he was last seen Sunday, July 8, is safe.
Both sides agree the Cedar River site is unique and incredibly beautiful. Plus a lot bigger. And it works well. So why do some powerful interests want to move the library to the Piazza? I don’t know. But I smell a rat.
Building a new library, estimated at $9 million, versus renovating the Cedar River site as a library, estimated at $13 million, on the surface seems like a no brainer.
We elect people to make decisions that protect our interest today and into the future. The council abdicated its responsibility by taking the library location issue to the voters for a popular vote; the decision was formed by emotions and miss information rather than real data and a long time vision for our city.
I think the energy of the Cedar River Library group is admirable, but severely short-sighted. The Cedar River location will never go away – it will always belong to all of us. But the vitriol, misinformation, confrontation and intimidation did not help this dialog. It hurt it. It brings us down as citizens of this city. And that’s not what we want to be.
While I’ve lived and worked in Renton since 1968, this is my first attempt at a letter to the editor. I believe it was H. L. Mencken who said, “The only reason for Newspapers to exist is to muckrake” and I agree, perhaps more today than ever. While I don’t believe that your misguided endo
It is an amazing thing that has happened in our little city. People, young and old and in between, have formed an emotional attachment to a special thing and a special place. You can hear it in the voices and see it in the eyes of those who first learn that the library on the Cedar River may be abandoned.
There is an open seat on the Washington State Supreme Court, which will be filled in the November election. Four candidates are running for this position, but one of them, Sheryl Gordon McCloud, is uniquely qualified by experience and intellect to fill the seat.
Well, isn’t it just lovely that the director of the King County Library System, Bill Ptacek, is so concerned about the citizens of Renton’s financial business that he sent out letters to his “neighbors.” He tells us he directed the Miller-Hull architectural firm to do an “in-depth investigation” on our behalf and they concluded that renovating the Cedar River Library will cost more than building a smaller one in downtown Renton.
Your ballot will be arriving within days. I urge people to do research on the candidates running to represent us in the 11th District.
The King County Library System recently mailed out a letter to Renton homeowners; to share information they have received from an independent firm they contracted with to help establish an estimate for what it will cost taxpayers to rebuild the existing library over the Cedar River. As predicted, the cost to duplicate what the City Council authorized to be built at the former BIG 5 site will be several million dollars more, which taxpayers would likely be required to pay.
Library costs cited in the KCLS letter of July 2, 2012, should not sway Renton voters, who have final say on site selection. “Hard costs” (from supporting documents cited by Bill Ptacek’s letter) are:
I was quite taken aback with the two Letters to the Editor that appeared in the June 29, 2012, Renton Reporter – amazed with some of the statements that completely overlooked the truth of the positive aspects of our present Cedar River library location.
Regardless if the library moves or not, taxpayers will pay for refurbishing the building over the Cedar River. Note the allotted $20 Million total budget in the Big 5 expenditure statement (http://scr.bi/HeMUmI). Cost will be more or less a wash. So the question depends not on will the move save money or not, or develop business downtown, or appease KCLS.
We recently received a letter from the King County Library System (KCLS) regarding the Cedar River ballot measure, Proposition 1, that the citizens of Renton will be voting on come August 7th.
I had a house built in Renton in 1987; at that time there was a policy in place, at least that was what I was told, that the city did not allow builders to cut down trees that did not interfere with the house. Therefore, the builder was going to leave an ugly, bent tree in the front yard of my house. I told the builder that I did not want the property unless he got rid of the tree.
As a downtown Renton resident for the past 16 years and a new member of the City Center Community Plan Advisory Board, I have some comments and questions on the library debate.
