Build It Right, Build It Once
I want to begin by acknowledging that the Porterville City Council has finally voted to move forward with construction of a new public library. It is important to note that questions still remain whether this council would have moved forward with construction if not for a vocal group of residents who began publicly criticizing the council over the lack of forward movement. But after years of delay following the devastating 2020 fire, that decision matters, and it deserves recognition.
However, moving forward is not the same as moving forward wisely.
The council has chosen to proceed with a smaller library footprint rather than fully building out the planned facility—despite repeated testimony that the cost difference between the reduced design and the full buildout is approximately $8 million. That figure has been framed as a budget shortfall. It is not. It is deferred spending, and history tells us deferred spending in construction only gets more expensive. The City Council has multiple mechanisms to complete a full buildout and avoid increased construction costs but refuses to explore them. At the same time they continue spending on pet projects such as battleship play structures, Washington Monument replicas and the heritage celebration that are not needed nor wanted by City residents.
Construction costs do not stand still. Even using conservative assumptions—3 to 5 percent annual construction inflation—an $8 million shortfall today becomes $11–13 million in ten years. That is not hypothetical; it is math. Labor costs rise. Materials rise. Code requirements change. Mobilization costs repeat. What could be built efficiently now will cost substantially more later.
By choosing not to build the full library now, the city is not avoiding the expense—it is passing a larger bill to future councils, future taxpayers, and future generations, while depriving today’s residents of the space, programs, and services the community has already said it wants and needs.
Porterville is not shrinking. Our population has grown dramatically since the original 1953 library was built, yet we are preparing to replace it with a facility only marginally larger. That is not planning for the future; it is planning to come back and ask for more money later—under less favorable conditions. Even worse, the increased costs may be used to justify never expanding the library to the original recommended size.
This is not a call to stop the project. It is a call to finish it properly. Build the full library now, when contractors are already mobilized and costs are known, rather than paying a premium a decade from now to correct a short-sighted decision.
The library should be built once—and built right.
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