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Worthy Compromise

Madison has an opportunity to bring its complex facilities deliberations to a satisfying conclusion for multiple groups. All uses for the Academy building involve massive spending to renovate what would remain an old building. It’s time to remove it.

Building a new library at the Academy site was never actively considered because the building couldn’t hold the books’ weight. A library preserves the public character of the Academy site. The present library would be sold to defray library construction costs, with the understanding that its historical segments be preserved.

The referendum vote would be on a swap—a public library on the historic side swapped for private sector development on the more-commercial, present library side. Library trustees would retain ownership and management of the library.

Those who’d like to promote additions to the Grand List without schooling costs would achieve this without the huge zoning change battle that using the Academy site would entail.

In a digital world, a library is needed more than ever. No longer just a shared collection of books, a 21st-century library is shared intellectual infrastructure, a sibling to our education system. A modern library needs a new name!

Shifting gears is no easy task. Library trustees have the architectural plan and a big dent in funding. The second, million-dollar grant from the state was due to hard work by State Senator Ted Kennedy, Jr. (D-12) and Satte Representative Noreen Kokoruda (R-101). What can be done to extend the deadline for the referendum to allow this shift and to transfer the two grants to a new library?

Madison philanthropist Daniel Hand’s twin legacies of funds for education of “colored people” and Madison’s first consolidated, cost-free high school occurred at the Academy site. I urge my fellow citizens to speak up and fight for this worthy compromise.

Emily Eisenlohr

Madison