The City of Eugene now owns the downtown public library free and clear. Imagine having an annual mortgage payment of $2.5-million. That’s what the City of Eugene has been paying for the library’s loan. On December 1^st the city made its final payment. In 1993, the city purchased the land at 10^th and Olive for $875,000. The city borrowed about $18-million and used urban renewal money to pay for the project. The overall cost of building and equipping the library was just over $36-million. Laura Hammond with the city says the community also helped.

Laura Hammond “The remaining 30% of the money came from other sources including $5-million raised by the public library foundation campaign, and sales of assets as well as the local option levy for about $1.9-million.”

Hammond says in these tough economic times, more people are using the library. It has an average of 4,000 visitors a day. The library also sponsors more than 900 free events each year, including job-hunting seminars and story time.