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The City of Renton Facebook page warned us that Monday, March 1, was our day to be over the loss of our independent library service and accept the KCLS annexation that Renton recently voted upon and lost, by a mere 53 votes, in an expensive special election. The Seattle Times finally got wind of the fight and wrote about it on that very same deadline day, and Celeste Gracy at The Renton Reporter followed suit the next day, catching up on the now presented legal case that the opposition to Prop 1 have put forward. The Save our Renton Library folk want you, the Renton citizenry, to weigh in and fight. It just isn't over.
It could be that the loss of the library to an organization that only shares a name with King County, but is in no way affiliated, will cost us more money than we were lead to believe. It could be that Renton City Council seems to underestimate our need for due process and correct facts and questions why they can so easily decide to spend $130,000 on a special election, not send out the voter pamphlets until the populace was already receiving their voter pamphlet, include a biased flyer in with our utility bills and call this fair play. It could be that this is just part and parcel of a direction that our fair city is just not willing to continue to take when it comes to deciding issues of community interest, and that our city leaders may not in fact be the embodiment of the "Live, Work, Play" motto of Renton that they purport to uphold.
Loss of the library downtown branch- under KCLS seems inevitable. Renton hopes to annex Fairwood (already a member of KCLS), move the present library in it's site over the river at the edge of Liberty Park and use this building for some fish hatcheries project (wow! hey they already have something like that 20 minutes away in Issaquah!) Oh, and then maybe our downtown library branch moves to Fairwood or elsewhere, living our Downtown Renton community without one more important and viable service. You know, the type that defines and fleshes out an active downtown. I am soooo tired of our DTR being shafted at the expense of The Landing or the suburban sprawl.
You can still be heard: The City Council members are here to be spokespeople for our city. An agenda that is responsive to all of our needs.
Public Disclosure Commission - Doug Ellis ellis@pdc.wa.gov 360-664-2735
Don Persson, City Council President Dpersson@rentonwa.gov 425-430-6501
Terri Briere, City Council Tbriere@rentonwa.gov 425-430-6501
King Parker, City Council Kparker@rentonwa.gov 425-430-6501
Greg Taylor, City Council Gtaylor@rentonwa.gov 425-430-6501
Rich Zwicker, City Council Rzwicker@rentonwa.gov 425-430-6501
Randy Corman, City Council rcorman@rentonwa.gov 425-430-6501
3/4 UPDATE: Now even The Renton Reporter wants to tell us to "get over it". Sorry, Dean - just like yourself, we are ALL entitled to out own opinion.
