County Rejects Library Bond Issue Money Would Have Built New Library, Improved Others

County voters rejected a $7.66 million bond issue for library facilities.

The bond needed a 60 percent approval rating - and far more total votes than those cast in the poorly attended election.

“Obviously with the turnout it doesn’t seem we’ll be able to validate at all,” said Mike Wirt, the library district director.

The Spokane County Library District serves small towns, rural areas, the Valley and other suburbs.

The bond issue would would have 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.

The money would have paid for the rebuilding of the Airway Heights branch, the construction of a new library in Deer Park and the expansions of the Cheney and Fairfield libraries.

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

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

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 a budget of $3.75 million and far fewer materials.

, DataTimes