Bond Issue Offers Upgrade Of Small Libraries

Bookworms can scan most of the offerings at the Airway Heights library by taking just 24 steps.

The first 12 paces cover children’s books, adult fiction, horror stories, tax forms and romance novels.

Turn right and take another 12 steps to peruse science fiction, westerns, mysteries, biographies, new books, books printed with large type, SAT study guides and Chilton car repair manuals.

The building was a two-car garage until the town’s volunteer firefighters built shelves and filled it with donated books many years ago. It became part of the Spokane County Library District in 1990.

“It really is the smallest library I’ve ever seen,” library user Julia Spence said Tuesday as she scanned the three narrow shelves reserved for new books.

“I can pick out several I’ve already read, so they’re not even new new books.”

One of nine branches in the library district that serves small towns, rural areas, the Valley and other suburbs, the concrete building will be replaced if voters approve a $7.66 million bond issue Sept. 19.

The money also would build a new library in Deer Park and pay for expansions of the Cheney and Fairfield libraries. It would buy $2 million in new books, videos and other materials

The biggest item is a $2.14 million computer system that would put district libraries on equal footing, technologically, with city of Spokane libraries.

Users could search hundreds, maybe thousands, of magazines by key words or topic. They could make that search - and scan the list of library books - from home computers.

Students could get the same access from each of the 28 middle schools, junior highs and high schools in the library district. Each school would get a library computer as part of the bond package.

“We may not be able to afford as many data bases as Spokane Public does because you have to pay an annual user fee” for each one, said district Director Mike Wirt.

State law prohibits the district from using bond money for user fees and other operating costs. The district’s $3.75 million budget already is stretched tight. As a taxing district, it gets no money from the county and is limited in the amount it can collect without asking voter approval.

The district serves more people in a larger area and operates more libraries than the city system, which has a $5.7 million budget. The county district has far fewer materials to loan.

Despite those differences, many people were unaware until this year there were two library systems. Anyone with a card for one could use the other without a fee.

That ended in January, when Spokane Public Libraries started charging up to $100 a year for library cards issued to non-residents. It was a matter of fairness, library trustees said; people who live outside the city limits don’t pay taxes to city libraries.

About the same time it imposed the fee, Spokane Public Libraries installed its state-of-the art computer system. The county’s library computers were incompatible with the city’s new ones.

“This (district computer system) works fine. It isn’t dying,” said Wirt.

But it is outdated in an era when technology more than five years old is ancient. The computers were installed in 1989, replacing others that were eight years old. Computer experts say the district won’t be able to find replacement parts or software much longer.

The advantages of the new computers are easier to explain to voters since many have seen what can be done with the city computers, Wirt said.

“There also were many people who weren’t happy with what Spokane Public did (by imposing fees) and want the library that they can use to be able to do the same things,” he said.

The two library systems will merge within two years if a city-county consolidation proposal passes in November. That can’t happen without new computers in the district, Wirt said.

“We need to get on with life (and buy new computers) regardless of consolidation,” Wirt said.

The bond issue would cost landowners slightly more than 11 cents for every $1,000 of property value for 10 years. That’s about $11 a year for a $100,000 home.

District voters in 1988 approved a bond issue used primarily to improve libraries in the Valley and other urban areas.

The tax rate to pay off that earlier bond sale also is about 11 cents, and the payments will continue through 1997. So, if voters approve the second bond sale, they’ll pay twice as much for two years, then pay about the same amount they’re paying now.

To pass, the bond issue must be approved by 60 percent of voters. But the election won’t be valid unless at least 29,754 people - 40 percent of the voters during November’s general election - show up.

“If you asked me my greatest concern for the election, it’s voter turnout,” said Wirt.

Further complicating the election is the district’s arrangement with the towns of Deer Park, Airway Heights and Fairfield.

While other towns annexed to the district, those three remained independent but signed contracts for library service. Their residents can’t vote in the election and their payments to the district won’t change if the bond issue passes.

Surveys show that libraries in those towns are used more by people from outlying areas - who can vote and would pay the tax increase - than they are by people inside the towns’ boundaries, said Wirt.

Library supporters have raised about $750 for the campaign. No opposition group has registered with elections officials.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo Graphic: Bucks for Books

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: WHO CAN VOTE Residents of unincorporated areas and most small towns will be asked Sept. 19 to approve a bond issue for Spokane County Library District. Residents of Spokane, Deer Park, Fairfield and Airway Heights do not vote on the issue.