Outcome of council debate next month on library site far from certain; council certainly will discuss more than library board's two sites

A final decision on the site of a new library is the City Council's, and talks with council members on Friday suggested that their debate next month should be captivating.

For now, Mayor Ron Corbett says he favors the so-called Emerald Knights site over The Gazette Communications site, the two sites recommended by the library board on Thursday. However, Corbett says his support could shift in other directions because it is based solely on the difference in cost - the cost to acquire and the subsequent loss of tax revenue - that favors the Emerald Knights site over The Gazette Communications site.

Council member Don Karr, the most certain of council members, likes the Emerald Knights site, especially, because of cost. And council member Chuck Wieneke says he “tends” to lean in the direction of the Emerald Knights site.

Two other council members, Justin Shields and Chuck Swore, aren't sure what they favor and need to know more. Shield, though, says he earlier had thought the library needed to be located in the downtown to give the downtown a boost.

Most passionate on the subject is council member Pat Shey, who says he still has his “heart set” on a third site, the TrueNorth one, which the library board considered but did not recommend.

Meanwhile, council member Kris Gulick says a particular piece of geography is just the start for him. He says he needs to look at costs before he decides.

Council member Tom Podzimek says the library board's recommendation can only mean so much to a City Council that he notes is likely going to have to figure out where to put a new Central Fire Station and a new Intermodal Transit Facility at the same time it picks a site for a new $45-million library.

Of the two sites picked by the library board, the Emerald Knights site is between First and Second avenues SE and Seventh and Eighth streets SE, and The Gazette Communications block is between Second and Third avenues SE and Fifth and Sixth streets SE. It includes the KCRG-TV9 building.

Podzimek noted that one of the “guiding principles” in finding a new home for the Central Fire Station is that the station have quick access to Interstate 380 and other major city streets. The Emerald Knights site, Podzimek said, fits that bill well.

“The City Council has to take the broader view,” Podzimek said. “I don't think it's the library board's responsibility of putting all the pieces together. They're responsible for one piece.”

Similarly, Shey pointed to the city's plan to build a new Intermodal Transit Facility, with a possible placement on a two-plus-block parcel of property now owned by PepsiAmericas and used for warehousing and maintenance. The PepsiAmericas property is adjacent to the TrueNorth property, which sits across Fourth Avenue SE from Greene Square Park and is the property on which Shey wants to see the new library built. The library board has talked a great deal about parking for the library, and Shey said he thinks the library and the transit facility could share parking if built in proximity to one another.

“I kind of had my heart set on the TrueNorth site when you think of the library on one end (of Greene Square Park) and the art museum on the other,” Shey said.

 Shey said he dismisses the concerns of some that a new library be built on property untouched by the 2008 flood, which is the case for the two sites picked by the library board. Sites like the TrueNorth one, which took on a little flood water, can be built to protect against that, he said.

Conversely, council member Chuck Wieneke said he long has favored moving the new library to higher ground to get it out of harm's way.

Karr said the Emerald Knights site has good access to Interstate 380 and nice proximity to The History Center and the Masonic Library, and he said he likes that a library there will replace blighted buildings. Most importantly, Karr said turning that block from a property tax-paying one to a public one would take less property value off the tax rolls than to do the same to The Gazette Communications block.

Mayor Corbett on Friday had one set of numbers at his fingertips: He noted that The Gazette site brings in about $116,000 a year in property taxes to the city and the Emerald Knights site, about $45,000 a year. Over 30 years, he said, that's a difference of more than $2 million in tax revenue for the city.

Council member Monica Vernon did not return a call.