Erie County Council rescinds Gannon lease at Blasco Library. Davis expected to veto

Five months after Erie County Council permitted Gannon University to lease a portion of the county’s main public library, a new council majority has opted to change course.

County Council on Tuesday voted 4-3 to rescind the lease agreement between the county and Gannon and prevent the university from building and operating a water research and education center inside the Blasco Memorial Library.

The vote was welcomed by a standing-room-only crowd of lease opponents, who, for months, have criticized the lease agreement for allowing a private, religiously affiliated university to deprive space from a vital public asset.

Celebrations, however, were muted.

The ordinance is expected to be vetoed by Erie County Executive Brenton Davis within the next 10 days. And a fifth vote on council to override that veto remains elusive.

Republican council members Ellen Schauerman and Charlie Bayle, along with Democrat Jim Winarski, all of whom voted against the ordinance, gave no indication of changing their position.

Winarski told the Erie Times-News after the vote he believes the center will be an asset to the community and that many residents agree.

“This past weekend, I went out to numerous, numerous venues, from the Ice Out party to fish dinners to the Home and Garden show, and I just asked people randomly and — believe it or not — 90% of them have no problem with Gannon being in the library,” Winarski said.

“I honestly believe it will be an asset for many years to come and I can’t wait until it all comes to fruition and then I can say I’m glad I did what I did.”

Gannon, protesters agree on center’s benefits ― not its location

The research and education center is part of Gannon’s multi-phased $24 million water quality initiative called Project NePTWNE ― pronounced Neptune ― or Nano & Polymer Technology for Water and Neural-networks in Erie.

Gannon, which received $1.5 million in American Rescue Plan funds from the county to build the center, intends to locate it on the eastern wing of the library’s first floor.

The center will comprise of an interactive exhibit, a NOAA Science on a Sphere exhibit and a research lab, all of which will be accessible to the public at no cost, according to Sarah Ewing, provost and vice president for student experience at Gannon.

“Situated within a critical environmental justice area, the center aims to provide equitable access to educational resources regarding water quality and research that affects all of our daily lives,” she told council.

Residents on Tuesday said they weren’t against the center and its potential value to the community but simply its location in the library.

They questioned the potential effects of a water research laboratory in a library environment and the lack of a proper impact study on the project.

They also criticized the county administration and council for making a “sweetheart deal” with Gannon, for fast-tracking, with little public engagement, a 25-year lease of roughly 3,280 square feet of space on waterfront property at $7 a square foot.

“You’re practically giving away our library for yet another vague promise of Erie revival,” Millcreek Township resident Nancy Shea told council Tuesday. “We’ve heard this before. We’ve been down this path many times.”

Council Chairman Terry Scutella, who, along with fellow Democrats Andre Horton, Chris Drexel and Rock Copeland, voted to rescind the lease, said he’s a supporter of Project NePTWNE but disagrees with the center’s location.

“I just don’t believe that it should be in the library,” he said. “There are other places on the bayfront that they could pick or choose. But when you get an offer you can’t refuse, you know where you go with that.”

What’s next?

Gannon spokesman Doug Oathout said Tuesday’s vote “wasn’t a surprise” but added “we have an executed lease and we’re working toward the future.”

“It’s understandable how people feel, but in the long run I think this is going to be something we all come to appreciate,” he said.

The university has selected Indovina Associates Architects of Pittsburgh as the agency that will design the center. Public hearings involving the design are expected to be announced shortly.

Oathout said he still anticipates the center to be completed by the end of 2024.

While Davis has repeatedly dismissed protesters against the lease as an insignificant number of residents ― a "very small, small group of folks," as he put it during a December news conference ― the chorus of voices Tuesday and the petitions circulating suggest otherwise.

North East resident Anna McCartney, a founding member of “Keep Our Library Public,” a protest group that has rallied against the lease since November, said more than 6,300 people have already signed petitions in support of their cause.

She broke down the numbers by council districts Tuesday and stressed how they represented a broad swathe of the public, from business owners, nonprofit leaders, philanthropists, clergy members, artists and even Gannon staff, students and families.

"We’re not going to give up, that’s for sure," she told the Erie Times-News. "We're going to investigate other avenues ... we want to make sure that no stone is left unturned."

"We've started door-to-door. We need to get more people. There are lots of different kind of people, not just four old ladies, and so we’re going to keep at it until hopefully we can get one of those three (council members) to change their mind."

A.J. Rao can be reached at arao@gannett.com. Follow him on X @ETNRao.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie County Council rescinds Gannon lease at Blasco Library