Manassas Park eyes own library
There is the beginning of an idea for a community library in Manassas Park.
Library Systems and Solutions Inc., a library management company, wants to open and run a library in City Center if the city council agrees to go in on the deal.
It's still in the talking stage, but George Bateman of LSSI said a 6,500-square-foot community library could staffed, stocked and equipped for roughly the cost of the dues Manassas Park pays for its residents to use the Prince William Library system.
"There are challenges to this, but currently the city pays a certain stipend to the county for access to the library, and it's an out-of-date '70s facility," George said of the Bull Run Regional Library which is the main library that serves Manassas Park residents.
"By redirecting those funds, we can operate the City Center Library," Bateman said of the $560,000 the city pays annually to the Prince William system.
Bateman told the council that for the money, the city would own everything in the library while his company would keep it staffed and open for 40 hours a week.
"Right now we have 40 hours spread across seven days," Bateman said.
Manassas Park Mayor Frank Jones said a community library would serve as a the heart of the community.
"It's really not just a library that we're talking about. It's really an information center, an information hub for the community," Jones said at recent city council meeting.
Manassas Park Vice Mayor Bryan E. Polk said he wasn't sure about investing public money into a project that didn't make money.
Bateman tried to clarify.
"It's not a revenue generator. It's a public service. What it does intrinsically is provide value to the community on a public level,"he said.
Still, the library could produce some revenue by charging usage fees to people who aren't city residents, and a coffee shop inside the library could also make money for the city, Bateman said.
Councilwoman Fran Kassinger said a community library would fit in with the upscale multi-use development on Market Street in Manassas Park.
She said the library might help draw desirable tenants to the upscale project.
"We all fought against the strip mall concept. This puts some class to it and establishes a standard for the type of businesses we do want," Kassinger said of the possibility of a community library.
Manassas Bureau Chief Keith Walker can be reached at 703-369-6751.
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Reader Reactions
Actually, since Fran likes Borders much better than Central Library, why doesn’t she work to get a Borders Books in City Center?
Now it comes out. We have a company that’s interested in running a library for the city just months after Fran Kassinger tried to get the city to kill it’s shared services library agreement with the County?
This is a terrible idea. We have reciprocal borrowing agreements with other public library systems—will we still have that with this new library? Probably not.
We have access to 10 county libraries. We will definitely not have that with this new library.
This plan stinks, and will give us less yet the cost will remain the same. Who on City Council stands to profit from this?
I have concerns about this plan. The promise of City Center is that retail space is just that… retail space to add to the commercial tax base. Clark should fulfill their promise to this community and market to business tenants, not the city. A library isn’t an anchor for a higher end retail complex. A restaurant is. Heck, I would take a CVS.
The Bull Run Library is an out of date 70s facility? The library that opened in 1994? Perhaps the News and Messenger meant Central Branch, which opened in 1968—but it is anything but outdated. Central is a fully accessible facility that offers all of the electronic services that Bull Run does. Either facility dwarfs the the space proposed by Library Systems and Solutions. Bull Run and Cnetral have 25,000 and 23,000 square feet respectively. The MP facility would have 6,500 square feet. Bull run has 236,078 volumes, Central has 194,356 volumes. Clearly a much smaller library could not offer nearly as much, especially when a portion of that tiny space is taken up by a coffee shop. Each library is open 63 hours per week, versus the 40 the MP branch would be open. It is clear the Park residents would get far less for their money with a city library.
Where are they going to get the money to pay for it they can’t even make payroll. They are borrowing money just to pay for the salary. The new rec center can’t even get an occupancy permit. MP is so far in debt that they are raising taxes in January just to pay the employees. Parks and Rec is hiring four employees with starting salary of $50,000, and where is the money coming from. The new rec center won’t turn a profit, and since they have not business base they are going to take the homeowner an extra 5% for real estate tax and property tax.
I know this since I work within the walls of city hall.
Speaking as someone who worls in a large Federal library, I hope Manassas Park does not proceed with this plan. Central Branch Library may not be in a new building, but the county has invested a great deal in this wonderful community resource. The collection is vast and up-to-date, and users also have the entire county library system available. A single site strip mall library in a small city will never be able to offer Park residents everything that the PWC system provides. This may be great deal for Library Systems and Solutions, Inc., but it’s a step backwards for residents of Manassas Park City.
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