SEQUIM — The City Council has voted, with unchecked enthusiasm, to back the Aug. 17 levy proposal that library supporters said would greatly benefit the North Sequim Avenue branch.
Sequim Mayor Ken Hays said Monday that the local library is an important part of the community.
“I think it’s critical that we support this,” Hay said, before the council unanimously approved a resolution supporting the proposal.
The Clallam County library system’s first levy proposal in 32 years will ask voters to restore the library property-tax levy rate from 33 cents to 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation.
That would mean a $4.28 per month increase for a home valued at $300,000.
Mayor Pro Tem Linda Dubois agreed with Hays, saying one of the first things she did after moving to Sequim was to get a library card and that the library was “a very important quality-of-life issue.”
Council member Don Hall said he supported the facility because good libraries draw professionals such as doctors and teachers.
The Sequim library is one of four public libraries of the North Olympic Library System, which also includes the Port Angeles, Forks and Clallam Bay branches.
“The basic problem is a revenue problem,” said Jim Roberts, a North Olympic Library System board member, because timber-sale revenue and property-tax revenue are down, and budget growth is limited to 1 percent a year under state law.
Library hours would be reduced at all libraries in Clallam County, including Sequim, and there would be fewer books, CDs and DVDs to check out, the library system has said.
At the Sequim library, Roberts said, checkouts increased by 40 percent from 2008 to 2010.
“So it’s a very busy place much needed by the community,” he said.
Sequim Library Branch Manager Lauren Dahlgren said additional revenue would mean longer and more convenient hours, from 42 hours a week in Sequim to 55.
Kate Adams, a member of the Friends of Sequim Library, told the council that “the libraries are an important part of a healthy community.”
Dubois said the library system spent 10 percent of its reserve to balance its budget, “and they can’t do that again.”
________
Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-452-0826 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
