Several speakers at Citizen’s Time yesterday  spoke to the issue of a library in Gainesville.   In fact, one woman shrieked at the board for a solid three minutes.  Sadly, she did not make her point.  Shrieking anger  seems more blog-like than tone one should use addressing the BOCS.  I was extremely grateful when her three minutes were up.   Other speakers spoke for the libraries at citizens time, with considerable less vitriol.

What some of the people in Gainesville must not realize is that they have a library.  We call it Bull Run Regional Library up here in the original Gainesville District.  It’s right over in the Sudley North Center, off of Sudley Manor Drive on Ashton Avenue.  It’s very much in the Gainesville area.  It’s a modern, attractive,  large, well-stocked  facility with several community meeting rooms.

When I want to go to restaurants and shops in Gainesville, I get in my car and drive there.  It might take me 15 minutes.  Unless it is rush hour, getting there is simply not a problem.  Why can’t that same route work for those who want to use the library?

I am not saying there shouldn’t be a library IN Gainesville.  I don’t really have a position on that issue.  I like libraries.  However, I must correct the notion that there is no library in the Gainesville District.   There most certainly is one.  Everyone in  Prince William County is entitled to use this library.   In fact, I would encourage the BOCS to build additional libraries when our public safety issues, community issues  and class size overcrowding issues have been addressed.

The shrieking woman seemed to think that all everyone has to do is rearrange the financial chairs on the Titanic and all will  be well and good.  In fact, several times she snarled at the board that more money was not needed.  Yes.  We do need more money.  Most of us are extremely tired of PWC trying to live on a shoe string.  We are a wealthy county and we are the 2nd most populated county in the state.  This perpetual tea party mentality simply cannot fly any longer.   I certainly don’t feel my taxes are too high.  I expect decent services and I don’t mind paying higher taxes to get those services.  If I wanted to live on the cheap, I would move out of Northern Virginia.

One gripe those of us “in town” folks have with the other members of the Gainesville District is their failure to realize that Gainesville District goes all the way to the City line.  Hello……….{echo chamber}….Yaaaaa-hooooooo!  Gainesville and Haymarket!!!  We are here.  We were here before you were in fact.  We are the original Gainesville District.   Yes, we are a more diverse population and probably a little more liberal than many folks out there in “God’s Country,”  but we are here, nevertheless.  We will get loud if you ignore us much longer.

28 Thoughts to “No library in the Gainesville District? BS!”

  1. Rick Bentley

    I live near the Bull Run library and can attest to it being well-stocked. First time I went there I was really surprised at some of the stuff they have. Great library.

  2. Lafayette

    I would suggest that the tens of thousands of newcomers in the far western part of the district, hop in their buggies and ride to Manassas. This is what people used to do. Those of us in-town, now have to drive to Gainesville to visit the supervisors office. I don’t hear us complaining, that our supervisors office is no longer just around the corner.

    Bull Run is a great library, but I still go to Central Library often too.

  3. I am all for funding new libraries but I see two issues here:

    1. Some folks not knowing that there was a library in the Gainesville District already. I think its that overwhelming feeling of self importance exhibited from our new neighbors to the west.

    Frankly, I am tired of being dismissed as the poor side of Gainesville district. I heard it again in yesterday’s meeting. I believe it was from my own supervisor. It’s sort of like maybe we should just erase the 20109 zip.

    2. The shrieking and attempt to bully the BOCS with anger and vitriol. That’s no way to act to get your own way. It reminded me of some other things I find unpleasant, if everyone gets my drift. (whispering loudly…underwear blog)

    By the way, Lafayette, Did you ever think we would be listed as the poor relations? I guess there is a new kid in town, to quote the Eagles.

  4. Censored bybvbl

    It’s my understanding that in 2006 voters approved bonds to build these two libraries which have become a point of contention between two egotistical county supervisors.

    http://www.pwcgov.org/government/dept/library/foundation/pages/bond-referendum.aspx

  5. ed myers

    Aren’t physical libraries antiquated concepts? I never think of doing research at a library. When I need information I expect instant gratification via an online search.

    I’d rather the money be spent on free wifi access in other public locations and a good county website with easy online access to government documents.

    The existing libraries could become art galleries.

    1. Interesting idea, Ed. There are some people who still love touching and smelling books. I would keep existing libraries. I am too impatient. Moon howls for instant gratification when dealing with online search.

  6. Confused

    I am with Censored on this one … I was one of the voters who approved a $40 million bond issue to build two new libraries – one in Montclair, and one in Gainesville. Eight years later, we still have neither. No bonds have been issued. The silver lining in this cloud is that we have seen proposals that cost half what was approved in 2006 – which means the BOCS needs to issue only approximately $20 million in bonds (which, by the way, are already approved).

    Moon, I hear you … I agree the approach by the first speaker last night was the wrong one, I also think we should build the two libraries that we, the people, already approved. I also frequent the Bull Run Library, and enjoy it.

    I do question the proposed placement of the new Gainesville Library – either way, people in Brentsville will have to get in their buggies and drive (about equidistant) to either library.

    1. I can see the mossbacks of Gainesville next fighting over the design of the building. Hold on to your hats if the design is modern and inviting. A pox on your house if there is an exercise machine in the reading room so people can read while they exercise.

      Some folks think that the horse and buggy is a good thing and that anything current or modern is automatically BAD.

      I hope that woman is embarrassed today. I doubt that she is. I haven’t checked the underwear blog today but I expect to see her paw prints when I do.

  7. Lafayette

    If they would have created a much needed in-town 8th district, we’d not be the ugly step child of the illustrious Gainesville district. Remember, my neighborhood is now in not one(as it been since the beginning of time), not two, but THREE districts. Funny, I don’t hear Marty talking about the poor section of his district. I have heard Wally talk about the poor people in 2010.

    Anyone that thinks the libraries aren’t used and/or antiquated are only kidding themselves. NOT everyone has a computer and/or internet access at home. When I needed a slide projector, yes I said slide projector, the only place that had one was the library. It made our Stonewall reunion full of laughs looking at old pictures from school. Lots of people do geneaology, and there’s no better place than the library if you researching local families. Sadly, most of the county is NOT from PWC and it may not as be as useful to them. However, our county is rich in history and the RELIC(The Ruth E. Lloyd Information Center ) is the place to go for your local history needs.

    1. Good reminders, Lafayette. You are right. Marty has too much class to start calling out neighborhoods as being too poor to pay a slight increase in taxes. Wally and Pete have both seemed to enjoy it.

      Oddly enough, your household and mine both are above the county “average” and we aren’t whining and bitching about an increase in taxes. I know it has to happen. I know where it should go.

      I also wish ALL the supervisors would listen to Corey and realize that they aren’t the boss of the school board. The school board is under no obligation to take orders from the supervisors. I am glad someone pointed this out!

    2. You are also correct about the 8th district. Again, Marty to the rescue. Manassas In-town needs its own district. I really don’t want to be in a district where my neighborhood is thought of as the low rent trash district. (again and again and again)

      Our neighbors aren’t the ones bitching. Its the people in the upscale houses. Maybe a lot of them went a little too up and are now feeling the pinch.

      For the record, I don’t sit around the kitchen table with my family and draw up a family budget. How hokie. Furthermore, households don’t work like government and vice versa.

  8. Lafayette

    poor people in *20109** or better yet 22110!

    1. Sudley was called out by name. I only know one neighborhood named Sudley. Do you know of another?

      Yea, A-holes. that’s where all the poor people live. Come check out our trailer parks and our shacks along the Bull Run.

  9. George S. Harris

    Two comments: @ ed myers-not everyone has a computer. Duh!@ Moon-I suppose if you live on the far western or northern edges of PWC, a library in Gainesville might be very handy, particularly since a bond issue was approved nearly 8 years ago. Now, Stewart has decided to make a political statement with the libraries as an exclamation point. Whether you like him or not, Candland is being punished for being in-your-face with Stewart et al.

    1. How is Candland being punished? I must have missed something.

      Go back and read what I said about the libraries. There is a library in the Gainesville District. That is my point.
      Once again the mighty folks of Gainesville have forgotten they share a district with the in-town folks.

  10. Wendy

    Candland has some good ideas. And at the beginning I was a big fan. Unfortunately behavior and blog buddies outweigh the good. Particularly the latter. Candland thinks things like parks, libraries and arts are not to be funded by government and Stewart jumped on that and used it against him.

    1. So private funding is going to take care of Catharpin Park? Sez who? Silver Lake continues to be an eye sore. Contrast it to the park in North Fauquier. It puts Silver Lake to shame. Too bad the county has let it go to seed even more. It needs a cool million sunk into it. (minimum) The county should have allowed Bull Run Conservancy to take it over. I think that before any more parks are built, promises made regarding Silver Lake need to be fulfilled.

      Also, every park doesn’t need to be full of soccer or football fields. There ARE other kinds of parks.

    2. Tea Party mentality wearing sheep’s clothing. I am so tired of PWC going on the cheap. It is the laughing stock of Northern Virginia. The names Hoodbridge and Manass-holes didn’t just spring up in a vacuum.

  11. Pat.Herve

    Everyone forgets that there is another library in the Gainesville District – the mini-library in Long Park. One can request any book to be sent there to take it out – and it can be done online.

    We really need to decide if we need this additional library. Many books are available online for free download onto a Kindle – via the library itself, as they buy the electronic rights and lend them out. IT could be cheaper to give every kindergartener a Kindle, instead of building and staffing a building. Where is the projected usage information so that we can decide – or is it anecdotal that a new library would be used?

    1. You have made some excellent points, Pat. Bull Run Library is also in the Gainesville District.

      I would like to see projected information also. The bonds haven’t been sold for the money yet, have they?

  12. George S. Harris

    Why not an iPad mini Pat? Far more versatile than a Kindle. And the library lending system is not all it is cracked up to be. Unlike print nooks, You can borrow a book for only three weeks but you can’t renew if if you don’t finish in that time. In order to finish it, you have to get back in the que and wait and wait and wait. And I am someone who is almost exclusively an electronic book reader–nook and iPad, on which I have loaded both Kindle and nook software. Am thinking of chucking the noon and getting an iPad mini since I use my nook to read in bed–much lighter than my iPad.

    P.S. Maybe the mini-library in Long Park could be turned into a full blown library?

    1. Long Park is so disappointing. It could have been a great park. As it turned out, it just became soccer fields with a pavilion or two.

      Where is the other Gainesville library to be built?

      I agree with you about mini ipad for the most part. Actually I went more on the cheap and replaced my old Kindle with a paper white Kindle. Less expensive than the other stuff. I was given a Nook as a gift. Its ok also and is in color. I prefer my paper white though because its lighter and has a long shelf life. Regular ipad gets too heavy.

  13. Pat.Herve

    @George S. Harris
    George – yes, not perfect. But you can get the same results from a book – ie, the availability is all centered around the number of books they purchase – and if they only get 1, then it could be in high demand and they will not renew it. No different between the electronic and paper versions.

    The property for the Library is Lightner Rd and Rt`15 – right near Mountainview Elementary

    1. Why isn’t it closer to Brentsville? Is there a library out that way? Well, I am not going to fight over it. It isn’t my problem.

  14. Don Richardson

    A little history, folks. We (I was a member of the Library Board of Trustees back then) put the Gainesville and Montclair libraries into our CIP back in 2000 or 2001. It took until 2006 to get the Bond Issue passed, but it did pass, overwhelmingly. To me, that is CLEAR direction from the voters on what the County’s priorities should be. The Gainesville library will be located on the corner of Lightner Road and Rt 15, next to Mountain View elementary school. The mini-library at Long Park was never intended to serve the kind of population level that has sprung up north of I-66. Yes, you can order books from the central repository and have them delivered there, but there is NO meeting space, NO AV equipment to speak of, very little reference material and NO place to sit and read or write. And of course, NO parking to speak of. I am in the IT business so I know all about the newest technological alternatives to books, but you still need the facility for the community space it provides.

    1. Thanks for the history lesson, Don. I had no idea when it was approved or anything. All I know is that Bull Run is in Gainesville District. I probably voted yes on the bond issue. I usually vote yes for libraries.

      I think the suggestion was about expanding the building that is there in long park, not using it instead. I have never been in it but it isn’t very big at all.

  15. Pat.Herve

    +1 Don.

    But they do have the biggest pavillion of any library just outside their doors .

    Are there any statistics on what usage the library will get? I had not thought of meeting space – is it used at other libraries – I really do not know.

    1. The meeting rooms are used at Bull Run Library and at Chinn. I think Central rooms are used also.

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