Central Street Neighbors Association

This evening the Evanston City Council in a historic vote voted to close both the North and South branch libraries.  The vote was 6-3 in favor of closing.  The North branch first opened in 1952.  The South branch was first opened in 1917.
 
The West branch library was closed earlier in 1981,  six years after it opened in 1975.
 
For the first time in 114 years, Evanston will have no branch libraries.

I am wondering when the Mayor's Budget Task Force will be inserted into the current budget process? If, as I suspect, they are focused on a longer-term outlook for the City of Evanston, I hope that there will be some assurance that our short-term decisions are in alignment with any forward looking recommendations.  
 
It would certainly be nice to have some communication regarding their progress and intentions. 

The City of Evanston, along with CEDA and Nicor  is hosting an Affordable Living Fair Sat. Jan 30th from 10 am -2pm at the Fleetwood Jordain Center. Everyone is welcome, please tell your neighbors.
 

The Budget Workshop tentatively scheduled for Saturday, January 30th at the Lorraine H. Morton Civic Center has been cancelled.
 

Evanston’s forestry budget is bigger than Skokie’s. It’s bigger than Wilmette’s.   It’s bigger than Highland Park’s. It’s bigger than Lake Forest’s. In fact it is bigger than all four combined. Only by adding Oak Park’s budget do the combined five city forestry budgets exceed Evanston’s by a comfortable margin.

Please be advised that a feral cat colony has been identified at a specific address located in the 1900 block of Grant St. The Evanston Animal Control Bureau will be conducting an on-going animal control abatement process, focusing on the feral cat population at this address. The propensity does exist for area domestic cats to wander onto this property.

Yesterdays rallies served many purposes in bridging alliances between wards to show that the Evansto Library System is a connection of people, places and ideas. People of all ages joined together in support of neighborhood libraries.
Libraries serve an muliple purpose in todays world. They are not just places that house books, they are or can be the heart of a neighborhood. They are places where people can go and no one asks them for anything.