More Books District Planning To Set Up Neighborhood Library On Moran Prairie In/Around: Moran Prairie

Between 8,000 and 10,000 county residents living in the Moran Prairie area do not have access to a neighborhood library.

They must drive to another part of the unincorporated county or pay a $40-a-year fee to use city libraries, such as the city branch on South Perry.

The Spokane County Library District board last month voted to do something about the problem.

The board gave the library staff authority to arrange a commercial lease to open a small branch library somewhere in the vicinity of 57th and Regal.

The temporary branch would open in time for next year’s summer reading program, said Library Director Mike Wirt.

He declined to comment on any possible locations until negotiations are completed.

Long-range plans call for the library district to purchase its own property and eventually build a larger-sized branch.

At its September meeting, the library board gave the district staff authority to seek purchase of a parcel that would be suitable for future construction, Wirt said.

The leased branch library will be about 2,000 square feet, which is only a third of the size of a full branch library.

“Our long-term goal is a larger facility,” Wirt said. “But this is what we can do relatively quickly and with current resources.”

Library board Chairwoman Nadean Meyer said the library district is committed to improving county library services to residents of the Moran and Glenrose prairies.

Currently residents of south Spokane County must drive to branches that are miles away, including one at Argonne Road north of Millwood or another in the Spokane Valley at Sprague and Pines.

Wirt said the district tracks library use by zip code and has discovered that a lot of Moran Prairie residents use the library branch near Whitworth College.

Many others are paying the city’s fee for nonresident library use. Wirt said there 1,400 county library cards issued to patrons living in the 99223 zip code.

The South Hill branch of the city library has issued 300 cards to noncity residents.

A new branch near 57th and Regal might also be more convenient to residents living along U.S. Highway 195.

“I think it will be a real asset for our community,” said Cheryl Gwinn, a member of the Moran Prairie Neighborhood Association.

“We are thrilled to finally be able to have a library in our neighborhood we don’t have to pay for.”

The temporary branch will not be large enough to hold a typical collection. Wirt said limited space will be used for more computer stations than at any other county branch.

The computers will give residents access to computerized databases, the Internet and the system catalog for ordering books and magazines.

The Moran branch will not skimp on children’s reading materials, however. Wirt said there appears to be a high demand by parents and younger children seeking appropriate reading material.

The fiction collection will be limited at the Moran site but may be rotated to give patrons a changing variety of books, he said.

The branch will be open 40 hours a week and will offer preschool story times as well as a summer youth reading program.

The earliest a permanent branch could open would be 2004.

Wirt said the library district would have to come up with a way of funding construction.

State law now allows the district to collect taxes for construction within a single service area rather than from an entire district. As a result, residents on Moran and Glenrose prairies someday could be asked to pay for construction of their new branch, he said.

The cost of building a new branch library is about $1.2 million.

Expansion of library services on Moran Prairie has been slowed by the indecision of the city and county to resolve future boundaries in a growth management land-use plan.

Wirt and other library officials said they could wait no longer and are moving ahead despite uncertainty over the future city-county boundary lines in the neighborhood.