About a month and a half after the Glendale City Council decided not to allocate funding to demolish the current Velma Teague Library building, council members and staff will discuss the library's future.

Two agenda items for the workshop beginning at 12:30 Tuesday, Feb. 25 are about the library brach.

Councilman Bart Turner asked for a council item of special interest regarding all options for Velma Teague upgrades and potential relocation last December. New councilman Lupe Conchas requested a similar item but also wants the city to look into the possibility of the more than 50-year-old building receiving a historic designation and a discussion about American Recovery Act Plan.

Both items of special interest will be discussed during the workshop. A  petition drive to keep Velma Teague Library in Murphy Park. As of Feb. 24, the change.org petition had 1,231 signatures.

“When they started seeing how many people were against this, they started seeing that they may need to backtrack. They knew another council member was going to vote against it, so it was going from 5-2 to 4-3, not a super majority at all,” resident Rory Goree said Jan. 14.

At a Dec. 10 council workshop now-former council members Joyce Clark and Ian Hugh were two of five agreeing to advance two contracts that would include money for the demolition for the current Velma Teague building. Mayor Jerry Weiers and council members Ray Malnar and Leandro Baldenegro also supported the demolition.

During an Oct. 22 workshop, the same five council members constituted a cousensus to keep the Velma Teague name but move the library out of Murphy Park and a block north to the Promenade on Palmaire.

But with Conchas joining Vice Mayor Lauten Tolmachoff and Turner against demolition without at least in depth discussion of all options, and Baldenegro reconsidering his support for the move, momentum changes Jan. 14.

Baldenegro represents the Ocotillo District, which includes the library.

"I also understand that when I was appointed I need to be very aware and listening to everybody. There was one person in particular that really reached out to me on several occasions and spoke to me three or four times. She said to me, face to face, ‘I don’t like what you’re doing. I don’t agree with you. I’m mad at what you’re doing. But I still love you,’ Those conversations really sank in for me,” Baldenegro said Jan. 14.

For a complete workshop agenda, visit this page. The council will have its voting meeting at 5:30 Tuesday. Both meetings are in the Glendale Civic Center, 5750 W. Glenn Drive.