The Pittsburgh city council approved by a 7–2 vote December 10 new 29-year lease agreements for all 18 branches of the city’s Carnegie Library. The leases will let the library renovate the branches or sell some and replace them with new ones in the same neighborhood, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported December 11.
The library has never had leases for its buildings, an informal arrangement going back to the 1890s when Andrew Carnegie and the city agreed to build the main branch in Oakland.
The legislation will allow the library to buy the city-owned buildings for $100 and sell the ones that are judged too small, too old, or in a poor location. City council reserved the right to give final approval on any of the sales, the proceeds from which would go into library-renovation funds.
A citizens’ group had requested a public hearing on the lease agreements, but the petition was rejected both by city council and by a county court judge. Carnegie Library Director Herb Elish told the Post-Gazette the library had been discussing its plans in public meetings for more than a year and a delay caused by a public hearing would postpone scheduled upgrades to the Homewood and Brookline branches.
Posted December 16, 2002.