Solving the parking problem at Tulsa's downtown Central Library

Tulsa's library system opted out of the Vision 2025 plan, but the library's future still depends on voters. The library board wants to solve an expensive problem at Central library, not enough

Tuesday, September 16th 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Tulsa's library system opted out of the Vision 2025 plan, but the library's future still depends on voters. The library board wants to solve an expensive problem at Central library, not enough parking.

Library Director Linda Saferite says one option is to start over with a new building. That's a $60-million plan that could make Central more like the new Hardesty Library. It's already larger than Central and its business doubled when it moved to a new location. The downtown Central Library has only 70 parking spots in a dark garage.

There's an alternative plan to build a parking garage across the street and connect it with the building. For $22-million, parking could increase ten fold. "The lack of it is really stifling what the Central library can be.â€

The board plans to take the issue to voters in early 2005.