By MIKE HUFFMAN
Managing Editor
Spokane Valley News Herald
It's time to start thinking big.
Still stinging from a pair of ballot defeats that would have jumpstarted two brand-new libraries in Spokane Valley, Spokane County Library District board members agreed Tuesday to move forward with a system-wide facilities master plan.
And while board members agree that the public should be part of that process, to what extent will be determined at the board's July 15 meeting.
“To involve the public is important for various reasons,” board Chairwoman Ann Apperson said. “We're just saying we should move forward with the plan, then in July decide what to do (about public participation).”
Mike Wirt, SCLD director, said that over the history of the library district, facilities planning has been done with either a small scope or for a specific geographic area. This time around, however, Wirt hopes to put together a 20-year plan that would incorporate the visions for libraries from Deer Park to the West Plains to Spokane Valley.
“We're in good shape now, but we have expressed needs in some areas,” Wirt told board members.
The library director likened the master plan to be somewhat like the Growth Management Act, the state document that decrees that governments plan for future growth. By having a rough sketch of what's to come, he said, it makes it easier to budget for that growth.
“We have to assume we're going to grow,” Wirt said. “We have to deal with that population growth.”
During a planning process in the early 1980s, the district worked toward Spokane Valley and North Spokane Library expansion and renovation. However, it turned out there was only enough money, secured through a levy lid lift, for the Valley project. Learning from that process, a more thorough facilities planning effort was made later that decade which ended with the North Spokane branch being completed as well as the construction of the Argonne branch and a new Otis Orchards library.
Three of the buildings the library district operates aren't owned by SCLD: Cheney, Fairfield and Medical Lake. However, the cities of Cheney and Medical Lake assisted the district in building new branches in those municipalities in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s.
The Spokane Valley Library, located at 12004 E. Main, would have been replaced by a new facility at University City. However, votes to establish a Library Capital Facilities Area along with a $33.4 million bond issue for construction of the new branch along with a new library for Greenacres both failed.
The new Spokane Valley Library is part of a long-discussed Sprague/Appleway revitalization project that would also include the location of a new city center for Spokane Valley. Supporters hope the SCLD asks voters again – and soon – to get the project moving forward.
Meanwhile, the library board must decide if community input on its facilities plan is culled through neighborhood meetings, mailed and/or telephone surveys or focus groups. All have their pros and cons – a phone survey, for example, would cost about $18,000 -- though board members said the best information would come from library users themselves.
“We need to spend the money wisely,” board member Frank Payne said.
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