February 19, 1998

STOP THIS LIBRARY PLAN NOW. People of logic and good will recognize that Cook Memorial Library should be expanded but it is not too late to develop a more cost effective and efficient plan. With this in mind taxpayers should vote NO on March 17 as the present plan is a 19.1 million dollar extravagance that a private-for-profit business enterprise would never float as their stockholders would rebel!

The present, two large campus plan requiring two material inventories and two operating staffs is a total waste of taxpayer funds which everyone will have to pay dearly for each and every year. It is a far different plan than the one originally presented calling for only a branch library on Route 60. If Vernon Hills does not like that plan, let them build their own palace using Vernon Hills taxpayer funds exclusively.

As a candidate for Library Trustee to fill the recent Board vacancy, I presented the Library Board with what I felt to be a sound and effective plan for an expanded, single, downtown Libertyville campus on the present site. The plan included these elements.

1. Expand the main level of the present building westward into the present parking lot. This would minimally interrupt the operation of the Library while construction was underway.

2. With cooperation from the Village of Libertyville, redevelop the present, unsightly jungle of parking lots now in use on the Lake/Brainard/Cook Street block into a single, modern, two-level parking deck similar to the new Nordstrom Parking Deck in Old Orchard Shopping Center.

3. This could be an airy, well-illuminated, safe and attractive facility with the lower level offering all-day Commuter, Employee and Business Parking for those requiring it. The upper level would be for Library Patrons, Milwaukee Avenue Retail, Business and Restaurant customers with space set aside for Bank and Village Hall clients as well.

4. Similar to Nordstrom, an upper-level bridge over Cook Street would lead into a Cook Library upper floor foyer with elevators and stairs to the lower levels of the Library. This plan is in compliance with ADA and wheel chair accessible.

I hereby challenge the Village and Library Boards along with Mayor Duane Laska to again sit down and develop a plan similar to the above which could solve a multitude of present Village problems, allow an efficient and cost effective library facility on a single site, redevelop a city block which is an eyesore at best and come up with the parking Milwaukee Avenue and Downtown Libertyville need to survive.

The continuing spending plans of our local public bodies are now making living as unaffordable in Libertyville as it has become on the so-called North Shore and, most of it is for the benefit of Vernon Hills which is creating the problem of over development at the expense of their neighbors.

On March 17, please vote NO--but at the very least, please VOTE.

Werner L. Weiss

Libertyville