PORT ANGELES — Capital expenditures for 2018 will total $445,480 for North Olympic Library System facilities to cover new paving in Port Angeles, computers in Clallam Bay, and a new vehicle and a pedal-powered Library on Wheels bicycle and trailer for eastern Clallam County.
Library system junior taxing district board members Mark Urnes and Clea Rome of Port Angeles, Jennifer Pelikan of Forks and Elaine Fredrickson of Sequim unanimously approved the budget Jan. 23.
Board member Betty Gordon did not attend the meeting due to a planned absence, NOLS Assistant Library Director Noah Glaude said Sunday.
The capital outlay is fueled by $270,480 in ongoing timber revenues from the NOLS capital reserve account and $175,000 from the Port Angeles library’s capital-reserve account.
It is unlikely that the full amount budgeted for 2018 will be spent, if 2014-2017 capital expenditures are any indication, library Director Margaret Jakubcin said in a Jan. 18 memo to the library board.
The largest single expenditure for 2018 will pay for upgrades to the Port Angeles Library at 2210 S. Peabody Street that will come out of the library’s reserve account.
They include $85,000 to repave the western half of the parking lot that will improve 48 parking spaces that are shared with Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Glaude said.
The project, slated for mid-August, will limit use of about one-third to one-half of the library’s off-street parking for about two weeks, Glaude said Sunday.
While the lot is being repaved, more off-street parking will become available to library patrons that is closer to the library while staff parks nearby on Lauridsen Boulevard.
Glaude said the parking lot will be repaved between the end of the summer reading program in mid-August and the beginning of the school year in early September.
“It’s usually the slowest time of the year,” he said.
Indoor and exterior lighting at the main library also will be upgraded with LED fixtures for $50,000 and recarpeting will be completed with a $35,000 allocation.
In addition, some side-tables and desks will be added that have electric outlets for computers and smartphones.
Glaude said a combination fountain and water-bottle-filling station also will be installed in the Port Angeles Library, made possible by a $5,000 donation.
For the Sequim area, the board budgeted $30,000 for a staff car for an East End library staff vehicle to provide outreach to schools and the home-bound, and transportation for staff training.
“Given the geographic expanse of the NOLS’ service area, the remoteness of the Olympic Peninsula from other regional training/meeting venues, and NOLS’ strategic focus on providing when-and-where-needed library outreach, development of a cost-efficient library ‘fleet’ is a high priority,” Jakubcin said in her memo.
Jakubcin said the $6,000 Library on Wheels, which includes a tiny trailer, is an “instant library” project that “is intended to facilitate delivery of when-and-where needed library services.”
The capital budget includes an additional $5,000 for an enclosed parking shed for the bike and trailer.
Glaude said project, scheduled for launch this summer, is geared toward letting residents know about NOLS services, including access to book downloads and streaming of movies and TV shows.
The trailer will haul an iPad and and about 20 books, DVDs and audio-books to farmers markets and other public venues, Glaude said.
“The main point would be to sign up people for library cards and let them know about services we offer and just have a presence in the community and connect with people,” he said.
For the Clallam Bay library, the board budgeted $5,000 for five new general-use public computers and two catalogue computers that will replace equipment damaged during storms in late November and early December.
An additional $5,000 is budgeted to pave what is currently a dirt path from the back entrance of the Clallam Bay Library to the parking lot.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
