Library funding effort raises eyebrows

Wednesday, Feb. 17, 1999 | 11:09 a.m.

The Las Vegas-Clark County Library District board wishes the North Las Vegas Library District well in its bid to pry more than $1 million out of the state Legislature and $3 million out of the county to help build a new library.

"We only wish North Las Vegas well," Executive Director Daniel Walters said following the monthly board meeting held Tuesday at the Whitney Library, 5175 E. Tropicana Ave. "Hopefully, it portends help for everyone. If the county commissioners are equitable, they will pay attention to the needs of our district, as well as Henderson and Boulder City."

Walters reflected his board's frustration at the way their counterpart in North Las Vegas is going about getting funds, through a Legislature already strapped for cash, and through the county.

At the heart of the concern is that North Las Vegas has refused to pass a bond issue to fund its library, while voters in the Las Vegas-Clark County library district voted back-to-back bonds in 1984 and 1985 to raise $25 million to start an ambitious building program.

"We're not resentful (of North Las Vegas)," Walters said. "But there is a frustration at the short-sightedness (of elected officials). What incentive do voters in the Las Vegas-Clark County district have to undertake another bond issue?"

North Las Vegas has tried for years to fund a new library. Currently it has only one. A $7.5 million bond issue was rejected in 1995.

The state Legislature gave North Las Vegas $350,000 in 1997 to design a new branch, a $6.1 million, 43,000-square-foot facility that would be located at Alexander Road and Martin Luther King Boulevard.

North Las Vegas Mayor Michael Montandon and County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates have announced they are working on ways to get $5 million toward the construction, with the Legislature kicking in more than $1 million.

The source of funding for the $800,000 per year operating cost has not been identified, another point that rankles Las Vegas-Clark County library officials.

"Our elected officials are overlooking the fact that the problems in North Las Vegas also occur here," Walters said. "We are delighted the state/county wants to address the needs of the library. We only hope they do it equitably.

"The Las Vegas-Clark County library readers took it upon themselves to bond themselves, without any transfusion from the state. If the county/state's interest is in helping those that can't make it on their own, that's great. But do it equitably."

Walters said the West Las Vegas Library, at Lake Mead and Martin Luther King boulevards, needs a complete make-over as well as expansion, but the district can't fund both projects.

In other business, Walters announced that negotiations with R&R Advertising on a lobbying contract were terminated and that the lobbying firm of Jack Vergiels and Danny Lee will be used.

"We were unable to negotiate a contract with R&R," he said.

Walters noted that dozens of bills that have direct and indirect impact on the library district are moving through the state Legislature.