City Council held a public hearing Tuesday night on the 2010 capital budget, prompting a mostly positive response from community members on its contents.

The budget, introduced earlier this month by Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, includes a new central library, financing for the Edgewater Hotel redevelopment, investment in street and water infrastructure and a new police training facility. The proposed central library, however, drew in the majority of the hearing’s participants, many of whom voiced strong support for its construction.

Only one participant expressed any opposition to the budget, with no one voicing any specific opposition to the new central library or Edgewater Hotel proposal.

Another participant registered in opposition to the funding for the Edgewater Hotel, yet did not speak on the subject.

Susan Schmitz, president of Downtown Madison Inc., emphasized the positive long-term effects of a central library.

“A commitment to a central library is more than a commitment to a building itself,” Schmitz said. “It is a commitment to a greater community, to a library system that believes in informing, enriching and empowering every member of our community by providing easy access to a vast array of ideas and information. This commitment will lead to an informed citizenry, lifelong learning and love of reading.”

The central library, a $23 million project, will be funded over three years by private fundraising, New Market Tax Credits and the sale of land.

According to Scott Vaughn, director of the Building and Construction Trades Council of South Central Wisconsin, there is impetus to begin the construction soon.

“I can assure you that, in this highly competitive construction environment, the city will get great bid prices for this project,” Vaughn said. “Waiting to build the project will only cost the city more in the future.”

Likewise, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Manager Mark Hoffman said he supports the project because of the potential job opportunities during the library’s construction, which, according to the budget’s projections, will create 200 to 300 construction jobs.

The hearing’s participants threw additional support behind the Edgewater Hotel redevelopment, which will be funded by Tax Increment Financing funds.

“Besides improving access to Lake Mendota, the investment in this property provides a tool for neighborhood revitalization in the Mansion Hill historic district,” Schmitz said. “Revitalization to this historic district is greatly needed in order to preserve the historic buildings that have and continue to decline.”

Others spoke of the incentives for redeveloping Edgewater.

“There are too many pluses to this project. … The first would be employment, and the numbers are very impressive: 1,000 construction jobs, 900 on site at peak and 400 to 500 permanent positions after the building is complete,” Vaughn said. “We need those desperately in this city.”

It is too soon to anticipate how the opinions voiced at the public hearing will affect the mayor’s budget, according to the mayor’s spokesperson Rachel Strauch-Nelson, as it is still early in the budgeting process.