If you listen to the Breakfast Flakes regularly, there are occasions when Mark and Paul get fired up. The proposed new Billings Library was one of the occasions. Here's what happened.

Paul: The public took a look at the new library designs this week with the project's proposed architect. There were some pictures displayed of what he is hoping will become the new Billings Library. Cost of the project is to be 18 million dollars. I understand about 50 people attended that meeting. When it's reported in the local paper 50 people showed up you know what that means, it was less. I'm sure a lot of those 50 were people involved with the project. Design people, planners, fund raisers, what have you and a whole lot of family members of people involved with the budget.

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Let's see, we are a country of 135,000 people. A little less than 50 show up for the library meeting. A lot of these are proponents had questions about the building. Some of the people of there were protesting it in fact so they weren't all for it. There were concerns on the solar panels. Questions about the fund raising and the library. The mayor was there. He's for the project, but he has to be. He's a city guy. So he has to be for it. Mayor Hanel said it's something we can't put on the back burner anymore with costs going up

I got an idea. You could just not do it and then you don't have to worry about it. Besides you heard the commercial today, how we going to be able to pay for this other stuff if we are taking money for a library now. You're gonna be by taking the tax payer dollars and using it for a library, you're gonna be taking potential tax dollars away from feeding starving children and taking care of aging senior citizens, and providing health care for people in the state. How can you justify that, how can you take away that money out of the tax coffers and build a new library.

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When libraries are going bye bye, like the movie video stores and things because technology is making all the reference material available at home.

Mark: It would be different on a couple of things like you said if we were at the beginning of technology of books we were going to need a library in the coming years, but we already have a library.




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Paul: The guy who designed it said this could be a community gathering place. We already have those. We've got the mall. We've got restaurants. It could be? Let's take an 18 million dollar risk on may be could be a community gathering place.

Okay, lets get together at the library. Mark what are you doing Friday? Oh, I don't know what say we meet up at the library and read about beer.

That's **** that's not a community gathering place. Thats dumb. Libraries are places people go to use the computer or read a book or get reference material.

Mark: You're going to have to ask the voters for more money again at basically the worst time in our economic history.




Paul: Yeah, so maybe maybe these people running these commercials are going to start running commercials about "look what we can't have a library, we need stuff for our programs and our people that we need to fund." $18 million dollars?

So do you agree with the Flakes?  Sound off in the comments

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