From: Sarah Gurney
Sent: Tuesday, July 7, 2026 10:54 AM
To: Jill McLewis <[email protected]>; Sandra Maurer <[email protected]>; Neysa Hinton <[email protected]>; Phill Carter <[email protected]>; Stephen Zollman
<[email protected]>; City Council <[email protected]> Cc: Mary Gourley <[email protected]>; Oriana Hart <[email protected]>
Subject: SEB CC Mtg July 7, 2026 Public Comment on Items NOT on the Agenda
RE: Crisis of Library Services
Dear Council Members:
The loss of our community living room, in our most visited public building, has negatively aƯected more people than you might realize. As a retired Council Member, I receive comments and complaints daily.
People need a safe, secure and welcoming place to go, for many reasons. They need an alternate location to settle into, during their day, not only for the information, education, entertainment, programs, activities, and enrichment that our local Library provides but also for the comfort of company and community. Isolation is now a top health concern.
Folks need a place of shelter that is free, where there is no need to buy anything in order to sit a spell, no coƯee or cookie.
This need is experienced by all ages, from infants to elders.
I urge you to create satisfactory interim arrangements and, importantly, to think more ambitiously and courageously to improve and expand our local Library services to 21st century standards.
Sebastopol needs a dynamic community Library housed in an adequate facility, more spacious than its current location.
Respectfully,
Sarah Gurney