More Bedford struggles

A couple of years ago, a stupid political battle in Bedford caused our library to become the first public library in the country to shut down since 1989.

Because an anonymous donor gave $300,000 to the city, it reopened soon, but it reopened wounded. Lately, it has bounced back.

But now our city council is causing trouble again. They are trying to outsource our library. They want to save money, so they are asking for bids to run the facility. A for-profit company has put in a bid, and now we wait to find out what the mayor is going to do.

As a resident of the city for over 25 years, as a library patron, as a librarian-wannabe, as a mother of three kids who LOVE their library and its programs, I am livid about this development.

Many residents have spoken out against this plan, but it is still on the table.

I went to a meeting at the library a few weeks ago when I first heard about this. Apparently I hadn't heard about it because there were news articles about it in the Ft. Worth Star Telegram (which I don't read) but not in the Dallas Morning News (which I do read, although more thoroughly during the school year when I use it with my classes).

Anyway the meeting turned out to be a brainstorming session, not entirely because of the outsourcing threat.