Recs and ReadsBy Anne McKay GarrisThey're talking, again, about closing our library and recreation center. The final decision will be made with votes on the first and third Thursdays in September. Our island communities, with 10% of the population of the City of Clearwater, pay 40% of the taxes. Downtown Clearwater gets to keep most of the taxes generated there, and yet some of our city Council Members think that tax money should not support our valued recreation center and library. Well, they say, there haven't been many people there recently. So, have they ever heard of hot summers when tourists are fewer and many residents head north, or to other cooler places? If everyone who reads this column will notify our city Council Members that they feel it is important to keep our newly combined facilities open, that we need them and so do our paying visitors, it would probably make a difference. If those same people will urge and encourage their friends to do the same, we will be even more likely to succeed in keeping them. At the beginning of the work on the budget this year, we were told that our library would remain open, partly because it is so inexpensive to run that it wouldn't help a lot to close it, and partly because the city just recently spent all that money to remodel the Recreation Center to accommodate the library. Up until last Thursday, there was no suggestion that it would be closed. Possibly a majority of the Council still intends to keep it open, but we shouldn't take that chance. You can email our Council Members at: john.doran@myclearwater.com; paul.gibson@myclearwater.com; frank.hibbard@myclearwater.com; george.cretekos@myclearwater.com and carlen.petersen@myclearwater.com. Or call 562-4050 and leave a message for the Council Members. Let them know how we value our library and recreation center and that you would hate to seem them closed. I had a great time at the Recreation Center sponsored computer class last Tuesday. Next Tuesday the topic will be Managing Your E-mail Address Book. Try it, you'll get lots of individual attention, because the class is small.
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