Leslie Kee, the director of the Moline Public Library, traces talk about a new library facility in the city back to 1959. The topic came up again in 1963, and discussions have popped up regularly since then. In the early '90s, the city looked at 44 possible sites for a new library.

Eventually, the city decided to build a new facility near the existing southeast branch on 41st Street. "We thought we had everything done, and then the economy hit a bump in the road," Kee said.

That was one and a half years ago, and now it seems that the city is pretty much back at square one. A new ad-hoc committee could start meeting this month to lay the groundwork for a new site study. "What we need now is to look at everything on a level playing field," Kee said.

There are six options presently before the city - including doing nothing - but the question of a site for a new library is shaping up to be a fight over two locations: one downtown and one in an empty Hy-Vee store in King Plaza. Any recommendation for a new library would come from the library board and would be acted upon by the Moline city council.

"There's a critical need for a new library," Kee said. The current facilities are "woefully inadequate" - too small and with failing infrastructure. (The downtown library opened in 1904, and the southeast branch was built in the early '80s.) To give some sense of the need, the most recent proposal for a new library featured a building that would be twice the size of the two current facilities combined. Location is "not as important as the need to have a new library," she said.

Yet the location is an important question for many in the city. Alderman Mike Crotty and others are pushing for construction of the library in the empty Hy-Vee store at 41st Street and the Avenue of the Cities (formerly 23rd Avenue). (And one of the major proponents of that site, a leader of Friends of the Avenue, has a business interest in selling the property to the city.) Meanwhile, downtown advocates are pushing for a new library at or near the site of the RiverStone building at Fifth Avenue and 17th Street.

"There's going to be a huge fight over where it's located," said Chris Barnard, owner of Blackhawk Travel and an active member of Moline's downtown.

While the issue of a new Moline library might seem parochial, it speaks to tensions and problems faced by municipal governments all over the Quad Cities. How does the city balance service needs with the potential for that service to be used as an economic-development tool? How does the city choose which part of town takes precedence in terms of economic development? And how can the city fill a long-standing capital need (for a new library) when it's had to take drastic measures just to make ends meet?

A No-Brainer?

The city got to this point by balking at a new library on property it owned near the existing southeast branch on 41st Street. The $14.2-million price tag for the 77,000-square-foot facility apparently gave the city some sticker shock. (The city council was probably expecting a proposal for $10 million or less.) The city then asked for the library to come up with a plan that would cost less, so Kee delivered a proposal in June for a 68,000-square-foot building. (There was no cost estimate for that proposal.)

After that, the mayor appointed a six-member ad-hoc committee to write a scope of services for a new site study. That committee includes two aldermen, two members of the library board, Moline Planning Director Scott Harrington, and Kee. When asked about a time frame to complete the work, Kee said, "We haven't been given one."

Harrington said this study is different than previous ones. "The library board and the city council will have the same sense of urgency ... that something needs to be done," he said. "What the committee is going to do is put all the issues on the table."

He added that this evaluation will be more specific. "Most of the other studies have been abstract," he said. "The sites [being considered by the ad-hoc committee] are much more than ideas."

Kee said there are presently six alternatives before the city: (1) build at or near the RiverStone site downtown, using Tax Increment Financing (TIF) for the project; (2) build at the Hy-Vee site at 41st Street and Avenue of the Cities; (3) build at the Hy-Vee site and create a TIF district to offset some of the cost; (4) build at the city-owned property on 41st Street near the existing branch library; (5) expand the southeast-branch library; and (6) do nothing.

Issues faced by the library board and (eventually) the city council include cost and accessibility for the people most likely to use the library. But a new library is also seen as a facility that will draw traffic and, as a result, spur economic development wherever it's located. That's why the library is such a big deal.

Because cost is such a major consideration, the downtown location has a big advantage over the Avenue of the Cities site: It's already in a TIF district, and as much as $4 million might be available for library construction. (A library building is exempt from property taxes, but the thinking is that it would spur growth wherever it's built, thus creating a property-tax increment that could offset the cost of re-development projects.)

Plus, Hy-Vee has eight years left on its lease and is currently paying property taxes on the Avenue of the Cities building. A library on the site would make the property exempt from property taxes. "Why would you take a building out of the tax base?" Barnard asked.

Given those things, Barnard said, "it doesn't even seem like an argument. It's a no-brainer."

The downtown location also has the advantage of being within two blocks of the MetroLINK public-transportation transfer station, and it's arguably closer to the city's senior and lower-income populations.

Renew Moline technically has no position on library siting, but it did (at the city's request) pay for a study that proposes a mixed-use library development downtown, including some housing and retail. Rick Anderson, Renew's executive vice president, said the study "brings some good information that the library board should seriously consider." The study, delivered to the city last month, highlights advantages of the downtown site, particularly the benefit of an existing TIF district, proximity to other Moline destinations such as The Mark and city hall, and technological and transportation benefits.

But John Corelis, chairperson of the Vision Committee for Friends of the Avenue, believes a new library belongs at the Hy-Vee location. Corelis is also a senior vice president of Ruhl & Ruhl Commercial. If the city were to purchase the Hy-Vee property on Avenue of the Cities, "I would earn a fee," he said.

Tax-Base Basics

Corelis notes that the downtown library site would also take property out of the property-tax base. But there is a significant difference in the amount of property taxes. The two parcels of King Plaza are currently generating nearly $200,000 in annual property-tax revenue. Three businesses that might need to be re-located for a new downtown library are on parcels that generate less than $50,000 a year in property-tax revenue combined.

The biggest thing in favor of the site is that it's more centrally located than the downtown site. It's also near several schools, most notably Moline High School. "It would be a wonderful relationship with the high school and the other schools in the area," Corelis said. A new library would help create a "learning campus," he added. The school board has expressed support for the Hy-Vee location.

But backers of the Avenue of the Cities site are also looking at it from an economic-development standpoint. "It could act as a stimulus, a huge traffic-generating opportunity," Corelis said.

Downtown has often been the focus of city development efforts, but the Avenue of the Cities needs attention, too, Corelis said. "I think it makes sense that the Avenue get its due," he said.

The main thing working against this location is that unlike the downtown site, there's no TIF district to offset construction costs. That's not for a lack of trying. "We've been requesting a TIF for a long time on the Avenue," he said.

And the Avenue is not an obvious candidate for Tax Increment Financing. Corelis concedes that the Avenue of the Cities is already well developed. The way to make a TIF district work in the area, he said, is to deepen development to increase property values, yet he admits that would take some work. "We've got to go beyond one-lot depth to make it happen," he said. "I know there's an interest in development on the Avenue, but with the present configuration of lots, that's going to be difficult."

The challenge for backers of the Avenue of the Cities site is going to be leveling the playing field with the creation of a new TIF district - offsetting the financial advantage of downtown. The other alternative is to employ some serious political muscle.

"Everybody's in Bad Shape"

While downtown and Avenue of the Cities interests are "standing up to be counted" (as Corelis said), there's a real question of whether the city can afford to build and staff a new library.

"If you have only $5, is it going to go to the library or the fire department?" Kee asked. "It's going to the fire department every time." Kee stressed that the library is not getting treated any differently than every other city department - "Everybody's in bad shape," she said - and that public safety will rightly always be the city's top priority.

The city's current financial condition has resulted in a mandate to reduce taxpayer financing of a new library - hence the discussion of TIF and mixed-use developments. "The key decision here is to find the best financial package to build the best library with the least impact on the taxpayers," said Alderman Adams, a member of the ad-hoc committee.

But the proposed library's price tag is just the first thing to consider. A new library is going to require more staff - five more people than its current optimum staffing level. Consider, too, that the library is already down five staff members because of a city hiring freeze. That means that a new library would have 10 more staff people than the library currently has on its payroll.

"The operational funding is an ongoing concern," Kee said.

Yet Adams said he thinks the economy will pick up, giving the city more resources for continued library funding. "I don't think anybody expects the economy to stay in the doldrums past 2003," he said. He added that construction on a new library could start in 2003.

Even with the city's limited financial resources right now, most people interested in the library project think the need is simply too great to ignore.

"The library needs to move forward," Corelis said.

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