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San Diego Downtown Library Project Gets Timely Cash InfusionsA pair of timely cash contributions have come to the rescue of San Diego’s beleaguered downtown library project. The board of the city’s downtown redevelopment agency agreed March 23 to provide $6.5 million to complete designs for the $150-million facility as part of its promised $80-million contribution.The San Diego Union-Tribune said March 24 that the funds come as the project is in danger of running out of money. “We need this infusion of cash to stay on schedule,” said Deputy City Manager Bruce Herring. The redevelopment agency, the Centre City Development Corporation, previously agreed to contribute $10 million in 2004, $20 million in 2005, and the remaining $50 million by 2008, all coming from property taxes generated in the downtown redevelopment district. The library’s other funding sources include a $20-million state grant that has not yet been disbursed to the city and an expected $50 million in private donations, of which $3 million has thus far been raised, the Union-Tribune reported. The CCDC money comes on the heels of a $2-million donation on March 11 from Union-Tribune publisher and owner David Copley, which KNSD-TV reported March 16. In a letter to Mayor Dick Murphy, Copley wrote that his mother Helen Copley, the longtime Union-Tribune publisher who died last August, “read avidly and surrounded herself with books, as well as newspapers. If she were with us today, she would be hearing with dismay the suggestions from some that the city she loved cannot afford a world-class library system. Important as the local branches are, the keystone of the system is the central library. I am convinced that San Diego desperately needs a new one.” The controversial library project became an issue in Murphy’s reelection campaign last fall, with challengers calling for its postponement in light of the city’s pension-fund deficit of at least $1.17 billion. The crisis led San Diego to make deep cuts in services, including reductions in hours at the central library. Posted March 25, 2005. |
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