Potential library move stirs debate

Three library special interest groups hinted to the town that Chapel Hill’s only library should not be in a mall at a meeting Thursday night.

Members of the Friends of the Chapel Hill Public Library, the Chapel Hill Public Library Foundation and the Library Board of Trustees met to voice their thoughts about the possible move.

All groups mentioned potential problems with the Chapel Hill Public Library’s possible move to University Mall.

The purpose of the meeting was to provide input for a report to be presented at the Feb. 14 Chapel Hill Town Council meeting, Town Manager Roger Stancil said.

Stancil first presented the relocation plan to the council Nov. 22 after University Mall’s owner, real estate investment company Madison Marquette, offered to permanently house the Chapel Hill Public Library.

Meeting participants took turns answering the same question: What are the potential concerns as well as opportunities with moving the library to University Mall versus expanding the current facilities? The town was seeking opinions on how library services would be affected at each potential location.

An hour into the discussion, there were 61 answers on 16 large sheets that had been hung on the walls.

The majority of members raised issues with University Mall location, and concerns of safety were repeatedly brought up.

“I’m concerned with the comfort level of parents dropping kids off for (library programs) in a mall-based facility,” said George Cianciolo, president of the Chapel Hill Public Library Foundation.

Others thought the higher crime rate at the mall would be a problem. Joan Troy Ontjes, a member of the library foundation, said it would be harder to monitor people coming in out of the library, and many thought that the mall environment was not appropriate for a library.

“We have such a beautiful place here,” board of trustees member Gracia Barry said. “People like to come to this setting. I mean it’s a beautiful setting. It’s not just the building, it’s the atmosphere around the building.”

Some of the special interest groups’ members questioned the town’s intentions in the move.

“I’m concerned that the town’s need for additional space is driving the proposal to move to University Mall,” said Melissa Cain, executive director of the library foundation.

Others were concerned with the lack of large commercial stores in Chapel Hill and what the loss of Dillard’s — the space the library would occupy — would mean for the town.

“I’m concerned that without a department store in Chapel Hill, where will the mayor buy his underwear?” said Martha Diefendorf, chairwoman of the board of trustees. “He told us that’s where he buys it.”

Kathleen Thompson, the library director, said she had seen these forms of discussion work and was hopeful that the session helped focus the different opinions on the library’s potential relocation.

“There’s a lot of issues on the (town’s) webpage. It’s like a library, if there’s a bunch of books in the middle of the floor, there’s no order, and you can’t find anything,” she said.

“I think this will help bring order to the issues. Pick them up off the floor. It’s what librarians do.”

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