Warmest Christmas in our lifetimes

I'm not necessarily talking about Columbus but world wide.  In fact this year, world wide will be the warmest year ever (at least as far back as scientists can see . . .which is a very very long time) and it will break the previous record by a LOT - off the charts "lot".

Some are saying "will this be the year we look back on and say this was the year humans started to understand we needed to change?".   NAA!  

ALTHOUGH - thing are cooling a little for next week.  A little slippage up north and Christmas will be only 10 degrees above normal.  Not 15 brrrrrrrrr

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I have matted 8x12 and 5x15 prints at The Work Shop on James Street if you are looking for that last Christmas present.     This is not one of those but a shot of Nancy O's horses!

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Our award winning library asked for $5000 and should receive it from the City. The reason is a little convoluted but it's a pretty big project.

They needed $5000 to hire a dude so they can get an apply for an extra $25,000 which the library and city would match to fund a feasibility study for a much larger project.  That project would be creating a combined library/senior center/youth center downtown and possibly a downtown TIF district. 

As many know our library is way way too small and needs expansion in the worst way.  They could expand into the parking lot but then there is no parking.  

I am 100% for this project as I believe a library is as important to the future of Columbus as a fire station or police station.  A library is knowledge.  There is a direct correlation between how good a library is and the average wage of a citizen in the city and with a larger wage there is a direct correlation to the economy of a city.  

Lisa Cestkowski of the Columbus Journal writes 

The Columbus City Council has taken the first steps toward exploring where a new larger public library could be built and what it would look like.

At a meeting Tuesday night, the council agreed to spend $5,000 to hire a consultant to help make preliminary plans for a new library and to apply for a Community Development Block Grant-Planning Grant.

Library director Cindy Fesemyer said in meeting with members of the community, it became clear that they don’t just want a larger library. They want a library that will be part of community center where people of all ages can come together.

The current plan is for the city to partner with a private developer to build a space, hopefully in the downtown, that would include the library as one of the anchor tenants, as well as a community center, Fesemyer said.

The consultant, Economic Development Partners of Verona, will do pre-planning to explore the feasibility of such a public-private development and also apply for the CDBG-Planning Grant.

The CDBG-Planning Grant is for up to $25,000 and requires a one-to-one match.

“So between the city and the library board, we would need to match that $25K — if we got the maximum of $25K — and then we would have $50,000 together to explore whether that downtown revitalization, and possibly a new TIF district, becomes a feasible project or not for this city,” Fesemyer said.

Locating the project downtown is important because there are grants and low-interest loans available for downtown revitalization, especially when that revitalization involves a community aspect like a community center and a library, Fesemyer said.

“This is about a lot more potentially than just giving the library more space,” she said. “We just happen to be the ones who brought it to the table because as we had these conversations with the community over the course of six months, they made very clear that they want more ways and more places to be together.”

Of course there is that matching funds thing but personally I would not want the city to contribute all $25,000 matching.  I would say the City comes up with $12,500 and the library does the other $12,500 since we have already invested $5000. So the total would be City = $17,500 Library $12,500

But that is my quick and dirty thinking without talking to anybody at all so basically I'm pulling numbers out of my butt (sort of what Trump does I guess)!

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Anybody play Pandora Sat radio? every time you hear a song the people who have rights to that song get $0.0017 richer.    

My God I am so sick of Star Wars already!  Is EVERY commercial linked in someway to Star Wars?  MAKE IT STOP!!!

Oil prices are in a free fall and are now at $34 a barrel and gas will continue to be cheap for a very very long time.  80% of all oil demand is transportation and with solar and electric slowly taking over MAYBE the earth will survive.

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