Put library up the hill, out of flooding danger

The advantages of the library board's wanting the new Cedar Rapids Public Library near Greene Square Park and occasional farmers market events are outweighed by an inconvenient truth: If the object is to escape future flooding, The Gazette block utterly fails the test. It took on water in the basement during the 2008 flood.

Here's hoping the City Council recognizes that the new library belongs up the hill, between First and Second avenues and Seventh and Eighth streets - the board's second choice, the onetime Handler Motors site.

And let's make it a point to refer to the better site that way. It served as an automobile dealership for many more years. Plus, this would stop memorializing a group (Emerald Knights Bingo) that folded when challenged to explain where its Bingo proceeds were going, since it had long idled its drum and bugle corps. (The leadership was tardy in filing state and federal forms that enable public monitoring of whether Bingo proceeds are going to charity, as state law demands.)

The former auto dealership is blighted, and contributes far less to the tax base than The Gazette block. That matters a lot. Besides, if it's good to have the new library near the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, it's good to put it smack between the Masonic Library and The Carl and Mary Koehler History Center. Let's build a shining library up the hill.

Kurt Rogahn

Cedar Rapids