Spokane Valley library bond fails

The bond to build a new library in Spokane Valley once again couldn’t pass the 60 percent super majority threshold and is failing with just over 57 percent approval from voters. “We didn’t get it,” said Spokane County Library District director Nancy Ledeboer. “The majority of people were supportive and I’m sure they’re disappointed that there won’t be a new library.” The bond would have raised $22 million to build a new Spokane Valley Library branch on vacant land across from the old University City Mall, plus a small neighborhood branch on Conklin Road and the remodel of the Argonne Library. The bond was previously rejected by voters in 2014, but voters did pass a special Spokane Valley Library Capital Facilities Area. That allowed the library district to ask voters only in that area, which includes Spokane Valley and some unincorporated area, to approve the bond. That designation was only good for two votes and the capital facilities area is now dissolved, Ledeboer said. “That makes it a more complicated issue,” she said. The library purchased the land for a new branch on Sprague Avenue from the city of Spokane Valley. The two agreed that the library district must break ground on a library at the site by 2017 or it must sell the land back to the city for the purchase price. Ledeboer said the library’s board of directors will discuss whether to try the bond again when they have their retreat later this month. They did not previously discuss an alternative if the bond failed, she said. “That’s clearly what we have to do now,” Ledeboer said.