Lafayette Library Board Adjusts Budget Ahead Of Council Meeting

For a place that's supposed to be synonymous with quiet, the Lafayette Public Library System has certainly created its own share of noise over the past 12 months. You might recall the public outcry surrounding Drag Queen Storytime a few months ago?

There was also the suggestion that the library should relinquish some of its funding for use on other projects in the parish. There has also been a bit of a stink raised about the library's choices of decoration and furniture for the new Scott branch. Oh, and there have also been voices raised concerning the absence of a library branch located in the Upper Lafayette and Carencro areas too.

At last night's meeting of the Lafayette Parish Library Board steps were taken to alleviate some of the outcries as the Board voted to amend their budget. These changes would move funds into a place that could be used to build a Northeast Regional Branch.

Last night's decision to commit $12 million dollars of reserve funds for library projects in the northern part of the parish should help quiet the political noise directed at the library. According to a report by KATC TV, $ 8 million of the reallocated funds would go to build the new branch and the other $4 million would go to fund upgrades and expansion at the Carencro branch.

It's probably not a coincidence that this amending of the library budget took place before the next Lafayette City-Parish Council meeting. This could be viewed as a preemptive strike against Lafayette Mayor-President Joel Robideaux's inclusion of a resolution for Tuesday's council meeting that would ask for an Oct. 12 ballot measure that would re-dedicate $18 million of the library system's $26 million fund balance to roads, bridges, and drainage.

And you thought the library was a quiet place, didn't you?