FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 17, 2024
The RCSC Board would like to report that we are making progress defining the terms of a five-year lease agreement with Maricopa County Library District (MCLD), which would replace the current five-year lease (2019-2024) that expires on June 30.
In a meeting including MCLD administrative leaders and members of the RCSC Board and management team held on Tuesday (4/16), MCLD Library Director Jeremy Reeder opened the discussion by emphasizing that MCLD tailors its operations in each of its libraries to the particular community it serves, eschewing a one-size-fits-all approach to its varied locations.
In an open, wide-ranging, and constructive conversation, RCSC representatives were able to address some of the particular issues of concern, ranging from the county and RCSC resources available to ensure safe social spaces; to the details surrounding the designation by the Heat Relief Network of libraries as cooling centers; to communication regarding incident reporting; to questions of liability; to extending (or, in our case, not extending) Wi-Fi connectivity into the parking lots around the leased library space; to conditions for renting additional RCSC space for special programming.
MCLD was most responsive to the concerns raised and will work closely with RCSC to fine-tune a lease contract that balances the needs of our residents with the requirement as a taxpayer-funded entity to remain open to the general public.
The RCSC Board is confident that a mutually agreeable contract will be drawn up that provides our residents with the very best of library services for years to come.
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