To the editor:

The Journal-World editorial, “Opportunity lost,” was right: The use of sales tax revenue for “library expansion deserved more consideration than it received” from Lawrence city commissioners. Of course, a good idea deserves consideration whenever it comes up, but Richard Heckler’s thoughtful idea came up too late for anything but deferral, which was not discussed. To have had a chance, it should have been presented to the commission early on and the J-W should have supported it in print, thus encouraging consideration. Even earlier, the library board should have seen the existing sales tax as a funding source more “marketable” than property tax.

The library is not a parks and recreation project? Aside from the clearly recreational aspects of the library, what about the $4.3 million for swimming pool parking? (Whether $34,300 per parking stall — $4.3 million divided by the net gain in parking spaces — plus future maintenance costs is a wise use of funds in a city already burdened by two underused parking structures is another question.) The parking in this plan is not library parking; the existing 125 spaces are enough to serve the library.

Although I believe the library needs to grow and am willing to commit property tax for its growth, I’m disappointed and disheartened by the approaches that have been taken. But perhaps the opportunity has not been lost, merely postponed. The first attempt was, among other things, two grand; this second try was unimaginative with hard-to-sell funding. I hope the third time will be the charm.