Mayor Dan Pope Talks Libraries, City Budget, and Bike Sharing

Friday on KFYO Mornings with Dave King and Matt Martin Lubbock Mayor Dan Pope joined Dave and Matt to talk about the previous night's city council meeting including what to do with the libraries, the city budget, tax increases, scooter and bike sharing services, dogs in restaurants, zoning, Reagor Dykes, and more.

Mayor Pope started the discussion by answering some questions about what the city plans to do with the libraries in Lubbock. He explained that they talked for about 45 minutes last night and spoke to the chair of the library board. "We, over the last 18 months, have used our work sessions to help educate the council on different things going on," Pope explained, going on to say, "We've not had any discussions about shutting one down." He said that they have a lot of things to consider, such as the future of the libraries, which he says will look much different than their current state, as well as whether they should continue to lease or buy the Godeke library location. Pope says that the city will probably start making decisions within the next 24 months.

The city council also completed their budget last night, with a tax increase being included. Pope explained that this one cent increase will be dedicated to police facilities, as the city had decided last December. The money will help with police substations, a downtown administrative headquarters, a property warehouse, a crime lab, and more The city will probably have to raise more money in the coming years as Lubbock continues to grow.

The Mayor was also asked how much further along he thinks the city would be if we did not have Citizens Tower. Pope said they he couldn't answer that, but did say,

"I think when it's all said and done, the citizens tower project will be something that we'll look back and say it was a good investment. My job is the execute on that. I wasn't there when that decision was made. Our job is to bring it in on time and on budget and that's what we're going to do."

Mayor Pope also spoke on the recent Bird Scooters appearing in Lubbock as well as the future of bike sharing services in Lubbock. He explained that the city has been working with Texas Tech on this idea, since college students would make up the largest user base of shared scooters or bikes. He expects the city to work on this idea by this fall.

Watch the full interview with Lubbock Mayor Dan Pope in the video above.

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