PORT TOWNSEND — City officials, who gleaned 85 written comments from an open house about how extensive renovations to the Port Townsend Library should be, plan to use the plethora of information to develop the most effective plan, the mayor said.
“People use the library to either browse and check out books or use it as a fully functioning community meeting place,” said Mayor David King after Monday night’s meeting.
“I think that the option we are looking for is somewhere in between,” he added.
A bond issue for the library renovation could go before voters as soon as the Aug. 6 primary ballot.
Those who didn’t leave comments at Monday’s meeting can still tell the city what they think. Completed assessments, surveys and comments are due by 5 p.m. Friday.
King said some information about the library may be presented at Monday’s City Council meeting, which is at 6:30 p.m. at historic City Hall at 540 Water St.
Options for the library also will be discussed at an April 22 open house — set for 6:30 p.m. at the Cotton Building, 607 Water St. — which will include discussion about a proposed joint city/Jefferson County metropolitan parks district, which could appear on a ballot as soon as November, and an East Jefferson Fire-Rescue district annexation, which could go before voters in 2014.
At the library proposal open house — which was held at the shuttered Carnegie Library, now under renovation — 116 people signed in, with 85 leaving written comments.
Most of the comments were made on a city survey that asked participants to rank the most and least important aspects of the library.
Twenty-five were listed.
Five options also were listed. From options 1 to 5, they are:
— Moving the library back into the Carnegie location with minimal operational modifications.
This choice doesn’t address library growth and would cost from $20,000 to $180,000 to complete.
— Upgrading with elevator replacement, south-side restoration and parking lot improvements.
This option doesn’t address library growth, would still require operational upgrades and could cost up to $2.2 million.
— Including improvements from the first and second options, plus a 2,000-square-foot addition to the current library to provide more collection space.
This option requires the continued storage of some of the collections and would cost up to $3 million.
— A two-story, 9,200-square-foot addition that would replace and expand the addition that was built in 1990.
This option would provide space for collections and paves the way for another 5,600-square-foot addition in the future. This option could cost up to $5.7 million.
— A new two-story addition that adds 14,700 square feet plus a basement to the existing structure and replaces the 1990 addition.
This option, which would cost a total of $7.75 million — an amount that includes the proposed city bond — has been the favored choice of the library staff.
Many participants carefully filled out comments on each option, while others kept it simple, such as one who scrawled “option 1” across the survey with no other data.
No names were required on the survey forms or for written comments, though some, like Richard Jahnke of Port Townsend, used their names.
“Most libraries are contributing, cooperating members of the community rather than competing,” Jahnke wrote.
“This one seemingly doesn’t recognize the importance of scaling down its demands and acknowledge that other organizations which meet important community needs are in danger of closing because of . . . economic duress.”
The surveys and comments weighed in about the options.
“If any of the first three options are selected and put forward to the voters . . . I will encourage my friends and neighbors to join me in rejecting it,” wrote one anonymous commenter.
“Those options look backward. They are the kinds of choices that communities make all the time but they’re not a Port Townsend choice.
“My preference is for going all the way and building a library now that can indeed last four decades without additional attention.”
Wrote another: “I will not vote for a library bond. The city has too much debt already. There are few jobs in the city and most pay minimum wage.”
King said that several emails about the topic had been received by the city at its contact point of citycouncil@cityofpt.us.
Those who wish to fill out the survey but did not attend the meeting can download a copy from the city website, www.cityofpt.us, and select “Library Expansion Open House Worksheet” from the homepage under “Latest News.”
Comments also can be dropped off at City Hall, 250 Madison St., on the second floor.
Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
