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Took old friend Brenda out for coffee and in Byron and while we were looking for an elusive parking spot we began to reminisce about How It used To Be. The village is no longer, the quaint shops selling local stuff have mostly gone, no one can afford the rents.
One place that hasn't changed for years is the library...oh where oh were is the "new" Byron Library? We remember when the library was next door to the funny old Council Chambers on the corner, sold years back for what Brenda says was considered "peanuts" and the council became a Backpackers Hostel and the library became shops. The real library moved across the road into temporary quarters and has been there for a decade or more.
So where do the funds for building a new library keep going? A fortune was spent building the monstrous "chook house" new council building in Mullumbimby. Were library funds used in that spend?
A person involved in Byron business and community affairs wants to know what's happened to the library funds? He hears some of the allocated funds for the construction of the library have been moved into a fund to service debt. And if Byron Council can pull nearly $500,000 out of a hat to buy a piece of land in Mullumbimby to stop Woolworths expanding why can't it build a library? And he asks, is it true Byron Library has to pay rent to its own Council? If this is so, my question is, as the library system includes the Richmond Tweed area how does this affect the Ballina, Lismore and Tweed Councils? Are they subsidising Byron Council by default?
I spend a lot of time in libraries. They are the heart of a town. A place of enjoyment, information, entertainment and assistance. How many children have had their minds opened by activities in the local library. A modern library - look at Brisbane for what a library should be, look at Casino for being user friendly with a welcoming staff - is indicative of the culture of a community.
How can Byron Shire that supports books and writers and ideas with such energy - the Byron Writers Festival is the biggest regional writers festival in the country and the second largest national writers festival for attendance and book sales - not have its own modern library?
We've been waiting 25 years. Where's our library???
Cheers
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