With all of the fervor over comments from the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on Longmire Park’s flushing toilets, will the city’s (and community’s) priority now turn to funding a public library building?

Former Nisqually Valley News reporter & former City of Yelm Community and Government Relations Coordinator Cindy Teixeira wrote a Letter to the Editor of the same newspaper published last Friday saying,
“In my next letter to the NVN I will address the needs of the Yelm library and the role of the Friends of the Yelm Library.”

Finally, an additional person in the community is stepping up to the plate to comment on this vital issue.
As I have reported here many times, the city’s agreement with Timberland Regional Library (TRL) to split the cost of rent in a private facility ends December 31, 2011, just over a year and a quarter.
At that time, the TRL Board of Directors has stated their contribution to Yelm’s rent will cease. Yelm will be on their own to pay the rent, for which Mayor Harding has stated the city cannot afford. He has previously told the Chamber of Commerce and the newspaper to expect a much smaller library here with reduced services after 2011.

Since property taxpayers in the Yelm library district both inside the city and in the surrounding county area pay taxes to support the Yelm Library, I have been surprised there has been little to no comment from the public on this. I, for one, am glad Mrs. Teixeria is going to add her voice to this looming situation for our community.

Afterall, if there has been such an outcry to support our children to have park sinks & flush-toikets, shouldn’t they have a quality public library building, too?
According to TRL, Yelm’s Library is the 2nd most patronized in the entire19-Library TRL system for children and youth. To have the severe cutback in library size, staffing & servives beginning January 1, 2011 would be a huge blow to this area of the Nisqually Valley…

What do you say?