Gary library closure opponents look at options

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Updated: February 29, 2012 8:05AM

GARY — Opponents of the closure of the Gary Main Library are stepping up their fight.

They have filed a lawsuit in federal court, plan to take a petition calling for the recall of several board members to their appointing agencies, recruited local and county politicians, few of whom have offered solutions, to their cause and have packed library board meetings.

But, Gary Public Library Board of Trustees President Tony Walker said those opponents are free to check out the library system’s finances for themselves and try to come up with a better plan. So far, he said, there have been no takers.

“Our financial books are open, and they’re welcome to come in and see if they can come up with a better option for making $2.5 million in cuts,” said Walker, a local attorney and a member of the state board of education.

At issue is what to do with the hulking structure at 220 W. 5th Ave., once an important part of what was a thriving downtown Gary. The building needs many repairs, and the majority of library board members and the board’s financial consultant, Curtis Whittaker, say it costs about $3 million to operate the site at full staff.

Also, the library system has been hammered by property tax caps enshrined in the state constitution, an expected 68 percent property tax collection rate, frozen tax levies and lower tax bills for large corporations operating here.

A system that once counted on $5 million to $6 million in revenue now faces operating a Main Branch and five neighborhood libraries on less than $3 million.

Shifting political dynamics on the board have not helped members make tough decisions, either. Walker, Jonathan Boose, Cynthia Watts and Rayfield Fisher have melded into a formidable voting bloc, while two members that were once in the majority now are in a minority.

In December 2010, Whittaker presented the board with a study that presented five options, a mix of closing the Main Branch, significantly reducing hours and operations and shuttering the local branches.

A split board voted to close the Main Branch in early 2011. Last fall, the board also voted to turn the building into the South Shore Museum and Cultural Center, operating with two full-time employees and a bevy of volunteers.

“All these things were considered, so we didn’t just come to this decision,” Walker said. “We’ve been looking at this for well over a year.”

But, the board didn’t look deeply enough, say opponents. Former library board president Ben Coleman, who is behind the petition and has admitted he didn’t attend the early meetings on the library’s fate, said the board should have looked harder at laying off workers, cutting hours of operation, or becoming a landlord to other agencies.

“I’m convinced because of the size of the library, you can get some other agency or partners in the building and have a sharing of space and costs and keep some services in the Main Branch, even if they’re limited,” Coleman insisted.

Part of Coleman’s strategy is to turn the petition he helped draft and circulate — claiming to have more than 3,000 signatures — to the Gary school board, which appointed Walker and Boose; the Lake County Council, which appointed Watts; and the Gary mayor’s office — the appointing body for Fisher.

He also called for a feasibility study and strategic plan on the proposed museum, proof of a funding source for its operation, and long-term plans.

Coleman’s 10-year tenure on the board raised touchy questions. A Post-Tribune investigation in 2005 found Coleman and his then library board members spent $33,000 for 23 individual trips, seven of them by Coleman, though the system was cash strapped even then.

“This has nothing to do with my tenure,” Coleman said. “I’m in business, and I know I wouldn’t invest money in something if I didn’t know where the money was going to come from. What’s the strategic plan (for the museum)?”

Less clear are the intentions of Lovetta Tindal and Gloria Moreno, two Gary women who filed a pro se lawsuit seeking an injunction against the closure of the Main Branch in federal court Thursday. The case has not been given a hearing date yet.

Neither Tindal nor Moreno could be reached for comment Friday.

“So, right now, it’s not before the court, and it has no merit,” Walker said of the lawsuit. “Like the rest of us, they’re lamenting the fact we cannot afford to keep open they library.

“I’m sure they mean well.”