Skip to content
The Archive of The Carrboro Citizen
Menu
  • Home
  • News
  • Community
  • Schools
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Obituaries
  • Sports
  • Mill
  • Flora
  • Print Archive
  • About
Menu

For the Record: Library cuts a symptom

Posted on July 10, 2008 by Staff

The recently announced cuts at the Carrboro Branch Library at McDougle Middle School are certainly getting some attention. Patrons and library supporters alike are saying that less staff and fewer hours — the result of a tight county budget — are the wrong direction.

The county is cutting hours in Hillsborough and Cedar Grove as well, but we agree that the cuts seem to fall hardest in Carrboro. The question is what to do now.

For many years, there has been talk of a larger, more centrally located library in Carrboro. Yet the effort is truly daunting — and expensive. And with county and town taxes already a serious concern and a lot of capital projects already in the queue, there’s not a lot of hope that there will suddenly be a pot of gold from which to pay for a new library.

So on the surface this doesn’t seem like the best time to start trying to build community, financial and political support for a full-size, centrally located Carrboro library. Rather, it probably makes more sense to keep building support slowly, behind the scenes, and wait for a better moment.

Because there is, clearly, one over-arching reason for pushing ahead: We need it.

Just ask the dozens of parents and kids turned away at McDougle last week or those who showed up to find the place now closed on Mondays. They’re just the tip of the iceberg.

The cuts at McDougle are a symptom of tight money and priorities elsewhere. There is little to lead us to believe that substantial county support is on the horizon.

Great ideas rarely arrive with perfect timing and too many die on the vine, especially when they require combined action by two or more government entities.

This is a town that has already proven that it will use a library, and a town that is facing an increasing need for one thanks to a growing population of young families and retirees.

Our downtown is vibrant, growing and inviting, but it lacks the public space; quiet; and the all-ages, walk-in opportunities for learning, dreaming, scholarship and exploration that only a library can offer.

The time has come to start in earnest the process that will lead to a new library.

Web Archive

© 2025 The Archive of The Carrboro Citizen | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme