Two local advocates, Diane Wagner and Russell Bettencourt, organized a community rally Tuesday evening, urging the Porterville City Council to prioritize General Fund dollars toward construction of the city’s long-planned new library. The group says the project faces a significant funding shortfall, and they fear the council may scale back the design or delay construction indefinitely.

“ We have a huge shortfall, and they’re going to use that shortfall as an excuse not to build the full library,” Wagner said. “And you know what happens when you build partials — somewhere along the line, somebody says we don’t need the rest of it.”

Both Wagner and Bettencourt expressed frustration in their view, the city is spending money on discretionary projects while hesitating to commit additional f

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