By Charles Ziegler, Vice president for advocacy, Friends of the Beatley Central Library (File photo)

To the editor:
I applaud the advocacy for investment to support local infrastructure expressed by Vice Mayor Justin Wilson (“City must invest to support infrastructure needs,” March 31). I hope that this concern for funding infrastructure needs extends to Alexandria’s public libraries.

In the approved fiscal 2016 budget, which governs the current year, the library capital facilities maintenance budget is $175,000. It was slated to be $285,000 for fiscal 2017 and $100,000 for fiscal years 2018 to 2025.

But the proposed budget has reduced that figure to only $10,000 for fiscal 2017 and zero funding for fiscal years 2018 to 2020. This risks not only serious deterioration of library structures, but also can put at hazard the precious resources that they house.

Of course, to govern is to choose, and painful choices and trade-offs must be made as to where to deploy scarce resources. Nevertheless, given the risks to buildings and their contents resulting from such drastic cuts in facilities maintenance, there is a good case for restoring much, if not all, of the funding for the library CFMP so drastically cut in the proposed budget.