Letters to the Editor, Aug. 29

Separate deliberations needed

I recently noticed city Councilman James Adams saying what he would like to see done by the Historic Preservation Committee during a meeting of the committee. That caused me concern. Separation of deliberation concerning issues appearing before the city’s boards, commissions and committees from the City Council’s deliberation and approval makes sense. We don’t want members of City Council appearing before boards, committees and commissions, advocating a point of view and then deliberating and voting on that same issue as City Council members. We had a charter amendment concerning this issue while I was on the City Council in the 1980s.

The city’s boards, committees and commissions need to deliberate independent of the City Council in order to serve as a check and balance to the final authority and responsibility of the City Council. We really want these committees to believe that they can exercise the authority that the group is chartered to perform, don’t we?

I trust that the City Council is also aware that they cannot direct city employee’s activities. There are three city employees that work directly for the City Council. They are the city manager, clerk and attorney. No other employees should receive guidance from the City Council except through the city manager.

Eric L. Lundgaard

Library to note bond pay off

The library team has great news to share. As of July 1, the Boulder City Library District has paid off its current bond. This is the bond voters approved in 1999 that helped us expand to our current location.

To commemorate this milestone, we have a celebration planned for Sept. 18 at 6 p.m., prior to the monthly library board meeting. We hope you will join us for this special occasion.

We want to take this opportunity to thank our community for so much support, feedback and all-around engagement over the years. As we reflect on how far our library has come from its prior location (currently the Senior Center of Boulder City) we are excited about the future and where we are headed.

As many of you are aware, in order to learn how we can better serve the community we conducted a survey this year. According to the survey, our community highly values the library and views our library as important to the quality of life in our community. We were encouraged to see that so many of those surveyed graded us an A overall. It’s also noteworthy that participants rated us high in terms of being a good place to access all kinds of information, being a partner for schools, and helping to foster a sense of community.

The survey also helped us identify points of opportunity such as many community members viewing the library as an underutilized resource in the community. It also showed many people are visiting our library one time a year or less. All of this is great feedback and will help us continue to offer meaningful services that appeal to more and more people.

To see the survey in its entirety, please visit our website (bclibrary.org) or stop by the information desk next time you visit. If you are looking for opportunities to get involved, consider joining the Friends of the Library, volunteer your time or even just talk to our staff and offer your insights and ideas regarding the services we provide.

We hope you will join us Sept. 18.

Boulder City Library Board of Trustees

Jeff Breeden, chairman

Marita Rhinehart, vice chairman

Ann Langevin

Rachel Hunt

Erica Tietjen

More information needed

I am sure many of us are curious about our newest City Councilperson, Tracy Folda. We were, unfortunately, not able to vote for her or able to learn of her qualifications or experience during the past election process.

How long has she lived in Boulder City? What is her educational background — finance, business management, municipal law, education, technology? What special expertise or business management experience does she bring to the council? Where does she stand on the issues and concerns of the people of Boulder City: growth, fiscal responsibility, small-business opportunities and operations, recreation for locals and tourists, etc.?

All I currently know is she won the seat by a flip of a coin and she is one of the original founders of the Boulder City Community Alliance, a closed social media (Facebook) group, of which the new mayor and other members of the council are or were members. I’m not sure either of these would qualify a person to serve the needs of the people of Boulder City, but, hopefully, Councilwoman Folda will provide us with the answers to my questions.

Charles McDonald