Talk of restoring the fountain at Maitland Library has raised the ire of a former Maitland councillor and candidate in next year’s state government election.
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Greens candidate for Maitland John Brown said the library should be moved further into the city and the fountain restoration was a minor issue.
Mr Brown launched a scathing rebuttle to the Mercury’s July 8 story about the fountain on Facebook.
“What troubles me about this is that this councillor, like all of the others [except one] in Maitland is totally wrapped up in the minor issues,” he wrote.
“A dry fountain? What about the building he is standing in front of? Our central library is well past its used-by date.
“We need a new library – bigger and better to cater for this growing city. In the [near] future there will be a lot of people who will need the library’s facilities.
“Stuff the fountain!”
Mr Brown said money earmarked for The Levee project could have been better used to establish a new library.
“Library memberships have been growing for years,” he said.
“There is more public interest in the library than the damned fountain.”
The mayor of Maitland, Cr Peter Blackmore, said council had discussed whether to move the library further into the city, near the town hall and art gallery, to create a civic precinct.
He said the need for a new council administration building had also been discussed.
But he said there were no immediate plans to relocate the library.
“Whether the library would form part of a new administration building, that has been considered for 10 years,” he said.
“But council felt that this was not appropriate when we were talking about increasing the rate yield.”
The library had been originally in the civic precinct, but Cr Blackmore said council moved it in the 1960s after books were water damaged during the 1955 flood.