Dear Editor,

I was saddened by your article ("Library Turns Volunteer into 'Secret Gardner'").

There are so many factors in play around this episode that it is a mistake to point a finger in any one direction.

Ms. Malone wants to help her local library by maintaining the grounds, which desperately need more maintenance, as a volunteer. However, the Seattle City Library system has no procedures in place to allow supervised or unsupervised volunteer work on its grounds.

If an unsupervised volunteer is injured while "secretly gardening," the library could be liable. I am sure this is not what Ms. Malone was thinking of when she offered to help, but we have all read many stories of good intentions gone bad.

The library workers were probably nonplussed at what was occurring and didn't know exactly what to say to Ms. Malone. I am sure no offense was meant.

All of us seem to want more libraries, open spaces, boulevards and parks. However, it is not enough to vote for the funds to build them; we must also vote for the funds to maintain them.

It is also easy to look around our neighborhood and see projects that neighbors requested and volunteered to maintain, yet did not follow through on (the boulevard on Eighth Avenue is a notable example, now a weedy mess year round).

Unorganized/unsupervised volunteer work is not always a reliable option.

In truth, our "sustainable" local library is aging rapidly and not very well. The grounds are weedy, the roof beams are streaking and blackening, and the green roof, while not actually being weedy one supposes, projects a weedy look.

If we want our green spaces to remain beautiful we must find a way to step up to the plate financially by funding more union gardeners or working on a partnership with local volunteers.

The Friends of Bergen Place is an organization that seems to make this work. I sincerely hope we can come up with a similar solution for the Ballard library.

Sincerely,

Toni Cross
Ballard