District outlines plans for Valley library

If the Spokane County Library District could write a children’s book about its future, it would include illustrations of construction workers in yellow hard hats driving backhoes and hammering nails.

If the district wrote an adult version of the story, it likely would be shelved in the mystery section. It’s unclear who will run the Valley library next year and whether voters will one day agree to fund the district’s plans.

The district has released a 37-page capital facilities plan that outlines how it wants to grow over the next 20 years. It recommends building a new, larger Spokane Valley branch along the Sprague Avenue corridor and selling the old building, at 12004 E. Main Ave., within the next five to 10 years. It also recommends building a smaller neighborhood branch in the city 10 to 20 years from now.

But the district’s future as the city’s library services provider is as unpredictable as an Agatha Christie novel. The Spokane Valley City Council will open the 2005 library contract up to competition this month, so a private company or another public agency might be the one checking out books next year. It’s still unknown what that would mean to patrons. Would the district hand over the books and the Valley branch building to the city? Or would a new provider bring its own materials and have a different method for lending materials?

If the district doesn’t win the contract, it will be up to the city to implement the capital facilities plan, change it or shelve it.

“If they wanted to take pieces and move forward, it’s theirs,” said district spokeswoman Beth Gillespie. “They would have to alter it because they wouldn’t have access to the same collection that they have now.”

Deputy Mayor Diana Wilhite, who served on a committee that collaborated with the district on the plan, said she didn’t think the city would need to change the plan if it doesn’t contract with the district.

“Regardless of who’s going to run the library, I think we need to plan for a little larger facility,” she said.

Wilhite said her goal is to reach an agreement where city residents will still have access to the district library branches, even if the district doesn’t win the contract.

“No matter where you live, I would want them to have access to the library branch that is closest and most convenient to them,” she said.

Gillespie said the district’s Board of Trustees hasn’t discussed such an arrangement.

Even if the district wins the contract, new facilities aren’t guaranteed. Down the road, voters would have to pass an $11.4 million bond to build the proposed main branch and a $3.6 million bond to build the neighborhood branch.

District Director Mike Wirt wrote the plan in collaboration with the committee of city, citizen and district representatives. A scientific survey of residents, an open house at the Valley branch and information gathered during other public input opportunities helped shape the plan.

Citizens said they were happy with the current facilities, but they wanted more books and other materials and more computers. Support for the status quo was particularly strong at a May 27 open house, which landed the day after The Spokesman-Review published an article saying the city planned to open up the library contract to competition. Many attendees vehemently defended the library that day, writing “Do not privatize” on comment boards.

Gillespie and Wilhite said they believe the response to the article affected people’s input that day.

“I think they were more concerned about the status of the library, per se, and whether or not they would have it,” Wilhite said. The survey showed that people support paying for new facilities, and Gillespie said more citizens will get behind new buildings when they realize that adding more materials and computers will require more space.

“I think that we’d be able to lay out the benefits of it,” Gillespie said. “Historically, libraries have been supported pretty firmly.”

The capital facilities plan shows that the Valley branch has significantly fewer books, CDs, magazines and other items – 127,000 – in its collection than the main branches of other Washington cities of similar size. The sharpest contrast is with the main branch in Bellingham, population 69,000, which has 310,000 items.

Spokane Valley library patrons have access to other branches in the district, but so do the patrons in Bellingham and in many of the other cities studied.

The plan deals only with changes proposed inside Spokane Valley’s city limits.

The district is recommending the new main branch have 49,000 square feet of floor space – more than twice the size of the current building. It should be located within a half-mile of Sprague and between Dartmouth and Sullivan roads, the plan says.

The neighborhood branch should have 15,000 square feet of floor space and be two to three miles away from the main branch. A location hasn’t been identified yet, but the plan notes that population is booming in the southeastern and eastern parts of the city.

The plan was based on Spokane Valley’s current population of 83,950, which is the most recent figure from the Washington state Office of Financial Management. It also considered an estimated population increase of 15,000 by 2024.

In 2001, the district planned to build a new Valley branch by 2006, but that effort moved to the back burner when voters chose to incorporate Spokane Valley two years ago.

The city will solicit proposals from library service providers for the 2005 contract starting next week.