Jacksonville’s very expensive downtown library is shut down, leaving the public to wonder why it closed and how long it will be closed.
This seems typical of the Lenny Curry administration these days. No one seems to know who’s on first base.
“There are no immediate plans to reopen,” the mayor’s information gatekeeper told News4Jax.
Eye on Jacksonville would have asked her for elaboration but she is not allowed to speak to us; nor is anyone else in the administration. Apparently we ask questions they would rather not answer.
The question today is why the library is closed. It was shut down for a few days while the state operated a Regeneron clinic there but now it is “closed indefinitely” for unspecified upgrades. (The clinic remains open.)
The $95 million, 300,000 square foot building just opened in 2005. It was part of the Better Jacksonville Plan under Mayor John Delaney.
Taxpayers might well wonder why it needs upgrades after 16 years.
In the current year Capital Improvement Program budget of $209 million, Eye could find only $210,000 for landscaping at the public library. If that is the upgrade, why would it require closing down the library?
None of the media showed any interest in pursuing the question despite having teams of “investigative reporters” on hand.
Instead, the local media seem more interested in the fact that bums have been displaced from the library, where they like to linger or seek respite from panhandling in the hot weather outside.
