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Citizens groups call for decision on Mason Square Library

Date: 12/16/2008

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor



SPRINGFIELD Additional pressure is being put on members of the Sarno Administration to make a decision whether or not to pursue a course of eminent domain to restore a full-service library to Mason Square.

At the Dec. 8 meeting of the Library Foundation the non-profit group that controls the endowments for the city libraries a voter was scheduled to take place that would assure the city the Foundation would use the Anne E. Curran Endowment to indemnify the city if it pursues taking the former library building back from the Urban League.

Mayor Domenic Sarno asked that vote be delayed until he received an opinion from City Solicitor Edward Pikula on whether or not eminent domain would have limited risk for the city.

The Foundation's attorney John Egan said the passing of such a motion would have no effect on the eminent domain process and the motion is designed to respond to the issue of responsibility brought up by members of the City Council.

"It's a logical first step on a journey with multiple steps," Egan said.

Former Mayor Charles Ryan, the president of the Foundation, asked the vote be delayed as Sarno requested.

Ryan asked Sarno if the Foundation could get Pikula's opinion by its next meeting on Dec. 22. The issue at the center of the eminent domain discussion is whether or not an agreement between the Urban League and the Attorney General which approved the sale of the library building in 2003 with a number of provisions actually sets a cap on the value of the building.

Several days after the meeting, Sarno told Reminder Publications that he is only interested in restoring a full-service library to the area as soon as possible.

On Dec. 15, members of the Mason Square Library Advisory Committee and neighborhood residents met on the steps of City Hall to once again call on the Sarno Administration and the City Council to move forward on the issue of eminent domain. Proponents of the legal course were also planning to talk about the issue at the speak-out prior to the Dec. 18 meeting of the city's Finance Control Board.

Mason Square Library Advisory Committee Chair Elizabeth Stevens said a move back into the former library building which underwent a major renovation a year before its sale in 2003 would cost the city less than $1 million.

"They [the Urban League] could find another spot. They don't actually need floors that hold library shelves and books. That building is way larger than they need, " Stevens said.

She added that originally the Urban League was interested in buying a plot of land next to the library building, rather than buying the building itself.

Former City Councilor Morris "Mo" Jones said that taking the Urban League building is a "no brainer."