SEQUIM — A proposed expansion of the Sequim Library could go before voters this November depending on a special meeting of the North Olympic Library System’s trustees next week.
They’ll convene for a special meeting at 5:30 p.m. Thursday in the Sequim Library, 630 N. Sequim Ave., to decide whether or not to ask Sequim-area voters to approve a Library Capital Facilities Area, or LCFA.
The special district, which entails most of the Sequim School District boundaries within Clallam County, could be established to ask residents to help support the expansion of the existing 6,050 square-feet library to about 17,000 square-feet through a bond measure.
Library staff estimates a new library would cost just over $12.4 million.
If trustees do decide to send the Library Capital Facilities Area to voters this year, Dan Gottlieb, a public finance lawyer, said at the trustees’ meeting April 26, they’d also ask voters to approve a bond measure.
It wouldn’t exceed $12.4 million, library staff report, and if approved, the Library Capital Facilities Area would begin collecting in 2020. On average, it would cost a homeowner with an assessed home value of $300,000 about $5.81 more per month and $69.74 a year over 20 years, library staff said.
Without a Library Capital Facilities Area, trustees would see few options including convincing voters across Clallam County to approve a new Sequim Library while having a 60 percent supermajority. Gottlieb said that would be unlikely.
However, he said the Library Capital Facilities Area requires only a simple majority and 40 percent turnout from the 2017 general election from Sequim’s precincts that would be in the new special district. Gottlieb said the new area’s only function would be to issue bonds for a library, which would be governed by Clallam County commissioners.
Library trustees also would need to work with the city of Sequim to adopt identical resolutions, since the Sequim Library is in city limits, for county commissioners to approve sending the LCFA and a bond measure before voters Nov. 6.
NOLS staff plan to ask the city to enter into a memorandum of understanding that the library will own and operate the building, too.
If trustees are to act, they’ll need to do so before Aug. 7, when ballot resolutions must be submitted to the county auditor.
Gottlieb said Library Capital Facilities Areas do not expire once they are approved but if a bond measure fails accompanying it, then library districts typically run the bond measure again within one to two years. They can only be rerun once, though.
Expansion background
Discussions to expand the 1983 Sequim Library have been ongoing for years and the most recent push began more than a year ago when library officials and design firm SHKS Architects began making presentations with community groups to gauge design preferences and answer questions about expansion options following a feasibility study.
An ad hoc Sequim expansion committee was assembled to consider information provided by SHKS Architects to help consider design options. They suggested and trustees agreed to pursue building a new library rather than remodeling the existing one.
SHKS Architects staff will present again starting at 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 16, about the proposed library design at the Sequim Library.
Margaret Jakubcin, library director of NOLS — which oversees public libraries in Sequim, Port Angeles, Forks and Clallam Bay — said the presentation will run the first hour followed by a meet-and-greet immediately following.
She said the project is still conceptual in that some things might change still, but what is presented that night is what will likely be presented before voters in November.
“This does represent the needs assessment and community input that we put a fair amount of effort into to get a good layout,” she said.
For more information on the proposed Sequim Library expansion, visit www.nols.org, or contact Jakubcin at 360-417-8500, ext. 7714 or via email to director@nols.org.
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Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach him at mnash@sequimgazette.com.
The Sequim Library was built in 1983 and a new proposal might increase it from just over 6,000-square-feet to 17,000-square-feet for more space for collections, meetings and staff. (Matthew Nash/Olympic Peninsula News Group)
