Regional Library

AFTER YEARS of studies, the Enoch Pratt Free Library is ready to unveil its plans for giant regional branches.They will be about the size of a modern supermarket, with on-site parking, coffee bar, gift shop, copy center and Internet access. If a planning document is to be believed, the libraries will have "public service hours until midnight, and year-round weekend service."Is this too good to be true? How would the planned super libraries affect existing branches?East Baltimoreans discussed the Pratt's plans at a meeting last week designed to gather input on the library's first regional mega-branch.

School vouchers leave some kids without support School vouchers pick and choose which children will have the opportunity to leave a failing public school to go to a smaller private or parochial school - leaving the vast majority of students to receive a substandard education. This picking and choosing, either by lottery or scholarship, does not address our city's education needs. It only provides support for the handful of children who meet the criteria to go to a better school. The recent letter "Vouchers help kids left behind" (Nov.

Site selection for a new Enoch Pratt Free Library branch in Southeast Baltimore -- one of four large regional libraries planned for the city in the coming century -- will be discussed tonight at a community meeting in Highlandtown.The meeting, sponsored by the Pratt and the South East Community Organization, begins at 7 p.m. in the hall of Our Lady of Pompei Church, Claremont Avenue and Conkling Street. City planners will attend.Pratt officials are expected to discuss sites for the new library -- a 20,000-square-foot state-of-the-art information center to replace at least one branch in Southeast Baltimore.

A BATTLE between two towns has shed some welcome attention on the county's public libraries. Here's the dispute: The town of Crofton is enraged that County Executive Janet S. Owens decided not to replace their existing library branch until the year 2004, opting instead to provide design money for a regional library in neighboring Odenton. A long-time squabble The library fight has been going on for years. County officials had identified a need for bigger and better libraries in both communities.

Enoch Pratt Free Library officials yesterday touted a plan to open four regional library centers, but they have yet to sell the idea to some community members who are upset that another part of the plan would likely include closing at least five of the 28 branches."

How often recently have you had overdue library books?When it happens at our house, it drives us all crazy. We get ready to run a string of errands. Twenty minutes from home and five minutes from the library, we realize we left the books on the kitchen table.Do we go back to get them? Of course not. That takes too long. We decide they must wait until the next trip -- perhaps in a few days. Then we pay 20 cents per book per day late fine. We get mad, but we have no other choice.We'd prefer to be able to return our books to a nearby regional library.

Should the county's next regional library be built in Crofton or west of there?That is the question facing the Gary administration, library system officials and community leaders in Crofton and Odenton.At one point, the answer seemed clear -- a regional library was to be built on county-owned land in Crofton. But, recently, community leaders from the western portion of the county and now County Executive John G. Gary have questioned that location, suggesting the Odenton Town Center might be better.

Crofton and Odenton will get new libraries in the next two years under a proposal announced Wednesday by the county executive.The county would build a 20,000- to 25,000-square-foot library in Crofton in the 1998 fiscal year, which begins July 1, and open a 40,000-square-foot West County library in Odenton the next year, County Executive John G. Gary said Wednesday in a speech to the county's General Assembly delegation."

The Odenton Town Plan Oversight Committee was formed in January 1996 by the Anne Arundel County executive.The committee is made up of 11 members representing both business and citizen interests, all appointed by the executive.Recent Sun coverage about the county's purchase of land for the future West County Regional Library in Odenton has portrayed the purchase as a paycheck to Jay Winer for his support of then-County Executive John G. Gary in the November 1998 election. In the opinion of members of the Odenton Town Plan Oversight Committee, that portrayal is not true.

A yellow cardboard sign stuck on a vending machine in a supermarket foyer offers a clue to the worries of many Highlandtown residents. "Save Our Store," it demands, circled by the signatures of dozens of area residents and a passionate message scribbled on it by one of them: "Seniors need a store close by where we don't have to go out of our way to get groceries!" The sign, the signatures and the message are a reaction to plans for a regional library -- a high-tech, roughly 35,000-square-foot building -- scheduled to be built in Southeast Baltimore during the next two years.

Angry Crofton leaders launched an e-mail campaign yesterday accusing County Executive Janet S. Owens of "political favoritism" and "double speak" in her decision to again postpone funding for their proposed library. The e-mail notice, sent by Doug Underhill, chairman of the Build a Crofton Library Now Committee, says Owens "snubbed" Crofton for the second year in a row when she bumped funding for the $9.7 million project to fiscal year 2004 and instead included money in her proposed budget for a west county regional library for Odenton.

A yellow cardboard sign stuck on a vending machine in a supermarket foyer offers a clue to the worries of many Highlandtown residents. "Save Our Store," it demands, circled by the signatures of dozens of area residents and a passionate message scribbled on it by one of them: "Seniors need a store close by where we don't have to go out of our way to get groceries!" The sign, the signatures and the message are a reaction to plans for a regional library -- a high-tech, roughly 35,000-square-foot building -- scheduled to be built in Southeast Baltimore during the next two years.

A yellow cardboard sign stuck on a vending machine in a supermarket foyer offers a clue to the worries of many Highlandtown residents. "Save Our Store," it demands, circled by the signatures of dozens of area residents and a passionate message scribbled on it by one of them: "Seniors need a store close by where we don't have to go out of our way to get groceries!" The sign, the signatures and the message are a reaction to plans for a regional library -- a high-tech, roughly 35,000-square-foot building -- scheduled to be built in Southeast Baltimore during the next two years.

THE RECENT closing of Haussner's robbed the Highlandtown neighborhood of its 73-year-old landmark restaurant. That's why a wave of development on Eastern Avenue is so encouraging.The Enoch Pratt Free Library has announced plans to construct its first regional "super library" at Eastern Avenue and Eaton Street. The $8 million library should open in 2003.The multimillion-dollar conversion of the old Patterson Theater into a cultural arts center has started. When completed in 2001, the complex will include a 150-seat theater, an art gallery and caf plus 11 studios for artists.

The Odenton Town Plan Oversight Committee was formed in January 1996 by the Anne Arundel County executive.The committee is made up of 11 members representing both business and citizen interests, all appointed by the executive.Recent Sun coverage about the county's purchase of land for the future West County Regional Library in Odenton has portrayed the purchase as a paycheck to Jay Winer for his support of then-County Executive John G. Gary in the November 1998 election. In the opinion of members of the Odenton Town Plan Oversight Committee, that portrayal is not true.

AFTER YEARS of studies, the Enoch Pratt Free Library is ready to unveil its plans for giant regional branches.They will be about the size of a modern supermarket, with on-site parking, coffee bar, gift shop, copy center and Internet access. If a planning document is to be believed, the libraries will have "public service hours until midnight, and year-round weekend service."Is this too good to be true? How would the planned super libraries affect existing branches?East Baltimoreans discussed the Pratt's plans at a meeting last week designed to gather input on the library's first regional mega-branch.

Angry Crofton leaders launched an e-mail campaign yesterday accusing County Executive Janet S. Owens of "political favoritism" and "double speak" in her decision to again postpone funding for their proposed library. The e-mail notice, sent by Doug Underhill, chairman of the Build a Crofton Library Now Committee, says Owens "snubbed" Crofton for the second year in a row when she bumped funding for the $9.7 million project to fiscal year 2004 and instead included money in her proposed budget for a west county regional library for Odenton.

A yellow cardboard sign stuck on a vending machine in a supermarket foyer offers a clue to the worries of many Highlandtown residents. "Save Our Store," it demands, circled by the signatures of dozens of area residents and a passionate message scribbled on it by one of them: "Seniors need a store close by where we don't have to go out of our way to get groceries!" The sign, the signatures and the message are a reaction to plans for a regional library -- a high-tech, roughly 35,000-square-foot building -- scheduled to be built in Southeast Baltimore during the next two years.

IT IS ENTIRELY appropriate that the Baltimore area now cheers for the only pro football team whose name was inspired by a literary character.From Baltimore, whose Enoch Pratt Free Library was lauded as a "pioneer" by steel magnate Andrew Carnegie at the turn of the century, to suburban systems, which are among the busiest and best-supported in the nation, this region has a grand tradition when it comes to public libraries.What follows is a summary of challenges area systems face as they try to maintain that high ground:Building anew in BaltimoreThe inauguration in November of a large library in Cherry Hill will mark the first time in 27 years that the Pratt has opened a newly built branch.

Site selection for a new Enoch Pratt Free Library branch in Southeast Baltimore -- one of four large regional libraries planned for the city in the coming century -- will be discussed tonight at a community meeting in Highlandtown.The meeting, sponsored by the Pratt and the South East Community Organization, begins at 7 p.m. in the hall of Our Lady of Pompei Church, Claremont Avenue and Conkling Street. City planners will attend.Pratt officials are expected to discuss sites for the new library -- a 20,000-square-foot state-of-the-art information center to replace at least one branch in Southeast Baltimore.