Why keeping Wedgwood Library open means a new library for this Fort Worth area

Opened 56 years ago, Fort Worth’s Wedgwood Library on Trail Lake Drive just south of Interstate 20 is small and the city’s oldest library. During lean budget years, it was often a target for closure.

That was the case in 2009, and again a year ago when city staff was putting together project lists for the 2018 bond program. Being proposed was a shiny regional library to replace Wedgwood. The problem was that the building was being suggested for the McCart Avenue/Altamesa Boulevard area, well out of walking distance for many Wedgwood residents.

Plans have changed. After hearing input at community meetings on the proposed bond program, staff has decided to keep Wedgwood open. Instead, the $9.8 million bond proposition for public library improvements will go to pay for a regional library, likely built in the vicinity of Tarleton State University’s area campus in far southwest Fort Worth.

“Wedgwood Library serves a significant purpose,” said Councilman Jungus Jordan, whose district includes Wedgwood. “I know how beloved it is. Folks walk there. It’s second and third generations of families who grew up in Wedgwood.

“If we were to close that library, it would put the neighborhood and businesses around it in distress.”

Tuesday, the council is expected to set May 5 for the largest bond election in city history. The meeting starts at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 200 Texas St.

The property tax rate will not go up to help pay for the 2018 bond program, city officials said. The projects, though, will add to the city’s budget beginning in 2020. By 2023, about $7.2 million annually will be added to the operating budget to run the new facilities.

The 2018 program totals $399.5 million and is divided into six propositions, the largest being $261.6 million for streets. If approved by voters, the 2018 program would be a 37 percent increase over the last bond package in 2014.

As with policy, nearly $5.3 million of the 2018 bond program will be set aside for the city’s public art program.

In addition to the Wedgwood Library, a few other tweaks have been made. Those include increasing the streets proposition by $3.6 million, from the $258 million initially proposed. It will pay for new roads, street reconstructions, intersections improvements, new sidewalks and, more and improved streetlights, among other things.

The city has already spent $10 million, paid for by tax notes, in preliminary engineering on 11 priority arterial projects and three high-priority street projects. The city is now in a better position to get those projects started soon after the bond election, if approved.

“We’re estimating that something will be going on in everyone of these projects in the first 18 months and allow us to be ahead of the game,” said Jay Chapa, an assistant city manager.

The other propositions include $84.1 million for parks and recreation, $11.9 million for fire safety improvements, $13.7 million for a 30,000-square-foot animal shelter approved by voters in the 2014 bond election, and $18 million to build a 28,000-square-foot police station in far south Fort Worth.

Eight new neighborhood parks, six new community parks, new and renovated community centers and other park improvements are included in the parks proposition. A proposed community center for the northwest quadrant may be done in a partnership, Chapa said.

“We have the possibility of moving forward on the northwest community center through a partnership that will allow us to do something greater than what we can do on our own,” Chapa said.

In 2014, 14,484 voters, or just under 4 percent of all registered voters in Fort Worth at that time turned out for the bond election. Currently, 423,209 people are registered to vote in Fort Worth, according to the Tarrant County Elections Office.

The city won’t start issuing debt on the 2018 program until 2019. Currently, 16.35 cents of city’s 80.5 cents per $100 assessed valuation property tax rate goes to debt payment.

This story was originally published February 5, 2018 at 5:27 PM with the headline "Why keeping Wedgwood Library open means a new library for this Fort Worth area."