"The journey back to our building has begun!" Liz Stevens said after last week's meeting of the Springfield Library Foundation.
Stevens, chair of the Mason Square Library Advisory Committee, was celebrating the Foundation's move to begin the long-overdue process of returning a full library to Mason Square. And not just any library—the very library building the neighborhood lost in 2003, when the Springfield Museums Association made a secret deal to sell the building to the Springfield Urban League.
At its Dec. 22 meeting, the Foundation—which oversees a trust fund earmarked for library services in Mason Square—authorized allocating funds for an eminent domain taking of the building at 765 State St.; the group also voted to indemnify the city against any legal challenge put by the Urban League.
It's now up to the Springfield Library Commission, which took control of the city libraries from the SMA not long after the sale, to officially begin the eminent domain process. The Commission meets next on Jan. 7. The City Council would eventually need to approve a taking by a two-thirds majority.
While residents and some city councilors have been calling for an eminent domain taking for more than a year, not all city officials were on board with the idea. Mayor Domenic Sarno expressed concern that a taking could prove too costly, especially if Urban League President Henry Thomas followed through on threats to fight the move in court.
Backers of eminent domain, however, were heartened by the recent revelation of a secret agreement struck between the Urban League and the Attorney General at the time of the sale that set a cap on how much the Urban League could receive if it resold the building: the $700,000 it paid, plus a cost-of-living increase that is expected to boost the price tag to about $800,000.
"I'm not crazy about eminent domain," Sarno told the Advocate in November, after the agreement was uncovered. Sarno had previously announced he'd instead struck a deal to buy a State Street mosque building for $950,000 for a new library.
But supporters of the taking point to an architect's report that found it would cost $4.1 million to turn the mosque into a library; by comparison, the cost of taking and refurnishing the old library would run about $1.3 million.
"That's quite a gap," said former Mayor Charlie Ryan, chairman of the Library Foundation and a leader in the efforts to restore the library.
In an interview with the Advocate, Sarno asserted that his aversion to eminent domain had nothing to do with a recent $500 campaign contribution he'd received from Thomas. "That's a moot point," he said. "I'm going to do what's best for the city." Instead, Sarno said, he was anxious to restore a library to Mason Square and was concerned that a taking would take too long. He also expressed concern about the city's liability in a taking.
That latter concern is, presumably, addressed by the Foundation's vote to indemnify the city. (In fact, Sarno, who, as mayor, sits on the Foundation, voted in favor.) Prior to the meeting, Sarno had also received an opinion from City Solicitor Ed Pikula that the Urban League's agreement with the AG was binding. In light of that opinion, "eminent domain is certainly an option now," Sarno's spokesman, Tom Walsh, told the Advocate after the meeting.
Still, Sarno is not completely ready to back a taking. According to Walsh, the mayor will now evaluate the cost of a taking alongside the cost of buying the mosque or constructing a new building adjacent to the existing building.
"He's got to do what's fiscally responsible for the city," Walsh said.
"With full indemnification by the Library Foundation, I am not sure what 'costs' need to be evaluated," said city councilor and Foundation member Pat Markey. "The Library Foundation will indemnify the city for all costs related to a taking. The city is on its own for renovation of any other site."
Kat Wright, a member of the Mason Square library committee, described the Foundation's vote as "the best Christmas present I could have hoped for," and expressed her gratitude to the community leaders and residents who pressed to make it happen. "I would also like to thank Mayor Domenic Sarno, who promised us a year ago that he would get a library back in Mason Square as soon as possible," Wright told the Advocate. "After a couple of false starts on buildings that proved to be unsuitable, he now understands—I hope—that 765 State Street is the only viable option."
