JULY LEGISLATIVE REPORT

 

The Education and Libraries Committee,which I chair, received an update on the new Polaris on-line library system at our July meeting.

 

The system will serve both the public and library staff. It will be up and running before the end of October.

 

The portion of the system available to the public will offer the ability to:

 

·         Search for a book or other library item.   The search will return information about multiple language editions. There will be a children’s catalog.

 

·         Request an item. In addition to simply logging a request, the system will allow patrons to choose any library to pick up the item, receive notices about new material, and put holds on new material before it arrives.

 

·         Create a search and save it. In addition, patrons will be able to create lists of titles read.

 

·         Review an individual account. Items available for review will include requests, fines and fees. Eventually, OCPL intends to accept credit card payment for fines. 

 

The system should also be more attractive to patrons than the current catalog. For example, Polaris will provide color art and other information about books, much like what appears on the Amazon site.

 

The new Polaris system will be a big improvement in itself. More generally, however, it is a prime example of consolidation, Onondaga style. While Onondaga County has not abolished towns, villages or the city, or combined them into each other or the county, it has, in some cases, totally consolidated entire functions (sewage treatment, for example) or, in other cases, assumed the burden of centrally providing certain “back-office”-type services (emergency communications, the criminal history database) that are offered to independent agencies. The history of OCPL is an example of both.

 

In 1962, the Onondaga Library System was organized as a cooperative non-profit association made up of the Syracuse Public Library (founded in 1905, funded by the City, and consisting of the downtown and city branch libraries) and the county’s other independent libraries, to provide shared services with greater availability and a higher level of quality than any could afford on its own. In 1976, the Onondaga Library System and Syracuse Public Library were consolidated into the Onondaga County Public Library. Under this City-County agreement, the County agreed to administer the entire City system, paying the cost of the downtown Central Branch Library, while the City continued supporting the branches that are scattered throughout Syracuse. Meanwhile, Libraries outside the city remained independent and self-supporting, but continued to benefit from shared services provided them by OCPL. The Polaris system, currently being installed, is merely the latest of these.

 

At the same meeting, the committee also authorized OCPL to receive a $36,000 grant for the library’s Tutor/Teacher Library Connections program. This program offers outreach services to organizations, tutors and teachers who provide volunteer literacy services to adults. The funds will be spent over a two-year period.

 

 

A project much anticipated by hikers and bikers throughout the community is currently moving through the County Legislature. The project is an extension to the trail that runs along the west side of Onondaga Lake. 

 

Onondaga Lake is one of the county’s most popular parks, used by about 1.3 million visitors each year. Currently, only between 10 and 15 per cent of these patrons visit the Westside Trail. The hope is a longer trail with better access will attract new visitors.

 

Under the proposal presented to the Legislature’s County Facilities Committee in July, the trail will be extended from the Nine Mile Creek to the peninsula used for fishing near the Solvay exit from 690. Eventually, plans are to extend the trail all the way around the lake. The trail will be paved, so it is accessible to walkers, bike riders and rollerbladers alike. 

 

At its July meeting the committee approved a resolution to provide the local share of the $2.8 million project. The bulk of the funding is coming from the federal government; the local share is coming from fines assessed against two local businesses for environmental violations. The largest cost comes in building a bridge across Nine Mile Creek. For safety reasons, the bridge much be able to accommodate emergency vehicles. 

 

According to the County Parks Department, which is running the project, a contractor will be hired by September and the trail extension will be completed by 2009. 

 

I expect to support the resolution when it is voted on by the full Legislature at our August Session.

 

In a related note, with regard to Onondaga Lake, there was a small bit in Sunday’s Post-Standard (July 29, 2007) that hints at the great improvement that has been made in Onondaga Lake’s water quality since the County began the massive reconstruction of the Metropolitan Sewage Treatment Plant (across the creek from the Carousel Center) and related facilities, mainly in Syracuse and Salina.

 

During the Bassmaster Memorial fishing tournament, then ongoing, the Post quoted anglers raving about the quality of fishing in Onondaga Lake. 

 

Said one participant in the tournament: “I’ve been up here (before) and never fished this place. I’d go to Lake Otisco, and Owasco, and Cayuga mostly…this was just off our radar. I never thought it’d be this good, but this place is unreal.”

 

A second participant, Californian Skeet Reese, said it even better, according to the paper: “He said some had told him ‘this lake is polluted. It’s polluted with fish,’” he said. 

 

It’s always a surprise, when someone from somewhere else finds value in something we take for granted, or are used to disparaging—like Onondaga Lake. Sometimes we are simply too used to things to appreciate their real quality.