hello belmont my name is david steve ater and i am running for a seat on the library board of trustees i grew up in buffalo new york and graduated from georgetown university before spending most of my time in the boston area my wife catherine and i have lived in belmont hundred five with a short time away from my job and pennsylvania new jersey we have four boys all of whom have attended or are currently attending belmont public schools i've worked in the health care industry for the past twenty years and i'm currently working with athenahealth in watertown where i've led sales and marketing teams for the past seven years work keeps me plenty busy but i have also served as a town meeting member and coached youth so ocker and baseball here in town my family is a very active user of the library kids are big users from story time when they were really little to books movies book clubs teen events and my wife recently did a presentation for her work in the library i love that we can check out books in all kinds of different electronic format so that i can read them on my i phone one of these big phones fact i just discovered another electronic format to download my latest book last night i entered the race for a library trustee because i truly believe i can make a difference for belmont i'm a big believer in the role that libraries play even as times change as technology changes and maybe even the role of the library changes but i still believe that it has an important role in our community people  why should we design a new library with meeting rooms that we have other places in town for that well i say and a lot of others believe this too that zero ibrary is about more than what's on the shelves a library serves as a meeting place a kind of community h where people come together exchange ideas and learn in all kinds of different ways i'm absolutely thrilled to find out that our library had a thirty percent increase in program participation and a twenty plus percent increase in meetings and attendance in tw sixteen i want to help preserve and expand on the role that our library plays in our community and i do believe that a new ibrary building on the current site as recently recommended by the library feasibility committee is the right choice for belmont the existing building has major structural deficiencies and is a terrible candidate for renovation i was on the roof recently and it's really it's really not a great structure it really needs a lot of work we need a building that's modern flexible adaptable to changing needs of the next fifty years and also accommodate the expectations of all of our users of all ages anyone in the community is welcome in the library and the next three years are crucial time in the library future the town we making decisions about big capital projects the new high school d p w yard police station if we want to gain approval for a new library building it is going to require strong and energetic leadership now there's a lot of discussion that needs to take place with other committees in town and the selectmen and the townspeople if we want taxpayers to help fund even a portion of a new library we're going to have to convince people why the plan makes sense and line up private money people might wonder really good yet emily what is different now why is this plan going to work when previous ones for a new are great couldn't get done it is a really good question especially in light of all of the other competing priorities in town to me the biggest reason why this plan can work and i think will work with the right leadership and energy is that we have a site the decision to keep the library at its current location at least to the recommendation of the library feasibility committee is crucial to moving forward yes we have to forego state money to do this but it also frees us to design the library we want it turns out that accepting state funds would require us to build a bigger library than will fit on the current site we've known that for some time without state money and with the other big ticket needs in town now we should assume that funding a new library in any reasonable timeframe is going to include a decent amount of private money so this leads me back to why am i running most library trustee races are not contested i enter because i believe that i have the leadership and energy to make a difference and help bring this new library project to life the feasibility study is just a start it may be close to where we land but there is a ton of additional work ahead to build consensus in town and get the funding put in place for this project my background makes me especially qualified to help with these crucial next steps a vote for me is a vote for bringing the new library one step closer to reality thank you for spending a few minutes with me and remember no matter who you support get out and vote on april fourth thank you