Posted on: Friday, July 1, 2005

EDITORIAL
Give Makiki Library the money it deserves

Surely some help can be found for Makiki Library, which after 27 years still operates as a stepchild of local government.

The distressed building that houses the volunteer-supported library has languished in the two years since state lawmakers set aside $4.5 million for renovations.

The need is acute. Many library windows, broken by vandals, were boarded up, and with neither breezes nor air conditioning, the building is uncomfortably hot.

Add to that the general disrepair of the concrete structure and the aging of electrical and plumbing lines, and the place becomes a burden rather than a gift to the community.

This is a real shame, considering the miracle of grassroots activism that brought the library into being. Neighbors in densely populated Makiki area desperately wanted a library reasonably within walking distance, but the state lacked the funds to build one. The city secured the building in Makiki Park, formerly the Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association experiment station, as well as some city funding that finally was cut off a decade ago. Since then, the library has subsisted almost entirely on private donations and largely unpaid labor.

Unfortunately, some of those volunteers have begun to drift away.

Granted, the library operates as a reading room and lacks the more comprehensive collections of its state-run counterparts, but even this small legacy is too valuable to ignore.

It's good that the City Council is throwing its weight behind the campaign, passing a resolution urging the release of the funds.

The governor should consider how much the community gains from the library and at how little a cost to the state. And then she should cut the check.