LAFAYETTE, La. — A local community organization has released a statement condemning the recent proposal made by a member of the Library Board of Control on Monday to change the library's mission statement and some of the services it currently offers.
During its regular meeting on Monday, one of the recently appointed board members, Robert Judge, proposed removing “recreation” and “cultural enrichment” from the library’s mission statement.
Supporters of Lafayette Public Libraries, which describes itself as a local grassroots, citizen-led community organization, say that they believe that the proposal is "counterproductive, divisive, and a waste of time for the Board of Control to focus on a topic whose only possible outcome is discrimination and the denial of essential services to this community."
At the meeting, Judge said that since the library is a subdivision of the Lafayette Consolidated Government, which already offers recreation services to citizens, the library offering recreation is a duplication of services, a misuse of taxpayer resources and fiscally irresponsible.
Judge also questioned why the library is engaged in cultural enrichment since LCG already provides for the cultural enrichment of its citizens through its cultural development projects such as the Heymann Center, Lafayette Science Museum and Acadian Park Station Trails.
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