Letters

U-City not city center; no place for new library

I would like to add some thoughts to the Valley Voice cover story of May 8. My family and I use the library on a regular basis, and I was one of the people surveyed about the library. In responding to the survey, I expressed the opinion that we are generally satisfied with the library, except that the selection of books is too small. The library rearranged their shelves a few months ago and went from a fair selection of books to a poor selection of books. The location is fine, the staff is helpful, and they are good about getting books from other locations in the county system.

In the survey, I was repeatedly asked about building a new library. My answer was always, “tell me where it is going to be located first.” My fear is that a new library will be in the U-City area. Our city leaders seem fixated that it is a central location. It is not! Take a look a map of the city and you can see that the center of our city is no further west than Pines Road. The majority of our future growth is going to be on the east side of the city. Please do not build a city center and/or a library in the U-City area, put it closer to the majority of the people in a truly central location. One reason that businesses have left the U-City area is to get closer to where people live and shop.

Because of location, my family would use the small existing Valley library more than a new larger library located in the U-City area.

Kirk Brower

Spokane Valley