Lubbock City Council Turns Down New Godeke Library Building, New Dollar General

At their meeting Thursday evening, the Lubbock City Council considered several key items in front of a standing room only crowd.

The Council chose to terminate a contract for the purchase of a new building at 3838 50^th Street, which was proposed as a new site for Lubbock’s Godeke Library.

Godeke Library is currently located in a shopping center at 6707 Slide Road, and the lease for the space costs $25,000 per month. The cost of the proposed 50^th Street location was $850,000 to purchase.

Citizens turned out to voice their support to have the library in southwest Lubbock, as opposed to the proposed central Lubbock location.

The Council voted to terminate the contract 6-1, with only Mayor Glen Robertson dissenting.

A Dollar General store will not be built along East 4^th Street, due to the Council’s vote.

The store, which was proposed to be constructed at 4011 East 4^th Street, was a fairly hot button issue on both sides, with some saying that a Dollar General store would be a boon for the elderly in the neighborhood, and others said that increased traffic would be disruptive to the residents.

The vote failed to change the land’s zoning from residential to commercial. The zone change request required six out of seven votes to overturn the City’s Planning and Zoning Commission’s recommendation.

The vote failed 5-2, with Robertson and District Three Councilman Todd Klein voting against the zone change request.

The building which formerly housed the City of Lubbock’s Health Department will also be razed soon.

The Council unanimously approved the demolition of the building, located at 1902 Texas Avenue.

The cost of the demolition is $206,000.

City Manager Lee Ann Dumbauld said that the land could be used as a new location for Fire Station Number One.