Library Board To Hold Special Meeting
The Ann Arbor District Library board has called a special meeting for Monday morning, Nov. 24, to discuss the downtown building project. The meeting will be held in the conference room of the downtown library, 343 S. Fifth Ave.
The meeting begins at 9:30 a.m. with a closed executive session. It will reconvene in a meeting open to the public at 10:15 a.m. If anyone wants to come at 9:30 a.m. – though they won’t be allowed to enter the meeting – they’ll need to use the back entrance to the building. The main entrance opens at 10 a.m.
No further details are available about the meeting’s agenda. Earlier this year, the board hired Luckenbach Ziegelman Architects to work on designing a new downtown library, and is expected to ask voters to approve a millage to fund the project.
Contact information for AADL board members is here.
I am still not convinced of the need for a new library building. I think the library board has a serious marketing job to do before I’ll vote any money for a new building. And I am a staunch library supporter, normally.
Something significant is going on. I was on the Library Board for 8 years, and special sessions were unusual.
The special executive session is about “real estate matters”. Under the Open Meetings Act, this can only be “to consider the purchase or lease of real property up to the time an option to purchase or lease that real property is obtained.” Before I left the Board, it was investigating renting space to relocate some of the Downtown Library functions while construction would be going on. Maybe they have found the right kind of space.
I hope the Chronicle will report on this meeting in detail!
I’m at the meeting now. The Library’s lawyer told the board in session that the bond market is not conducive to the needs of the new building project. The board just voted unanimously to suspend all work on the project.