Letter to the Editor July 6, 2016

Dear Editor:
As a lifelong resident of the Maple Lake area, the article about the possibility of building a new professional building downtown sounds great!
And when a possible new home for the Maple Lake Library was mentioned, that is even better!! Our library has been a wonderful addition to our town. It has offered a lot to all area residents. We were fortunate to be able to rent the Muller building since 2009, and it has served us well. But it is old, in need of many repairs and we are outgrowing its space! My summer story time has had to relocate to the McHugh building for the past 2 summers because of higher numbers of participants, which is a wonderful problem, but library story time should be in a library!
A new, spacious building for our library would be wonderful. I certainly hope you will seriously consider this option for the vacant lot. With a private investor owning the building, the city would also receive tax income from that property, versus spending city money on a park when we already have a nice big park just two blocks from downtown. That space would work well for the events mentioned in the paper. And it already has restrooms, grass, landscaping power and lights, and the city already owns it. The other towns you mentioned in the city council article that had areas for gatherings were not all downtown and our park is centrally located in town for easy access by everyone.
Thank you,
Marie Mavencamp