The Spokane County Library District and the city of Spokane Valley are set to amend and extend an agreement that would allow for the construction of a library at the northeast corner of Sprague Avenue and Herald Street, just across Sprague from the new City Hall.

The proposed amendment to the agreement would give the library district another five years to pass a bond measure to pay for construction, following two failed attempts, and would commit the city of Spokane Valley to a $1.3 million investment in the library project. 

A recent city press release says a committee of library district trustees, city council members, and senior staff from both entities have been meeting since January to discuss changes and options for extending the original facility agreement. 

Jane Baker, communication and development officer for the library district, says the proposed amendment will be presented at the upcoming council meeting on July 25. 

“The proposal will be presented to city council for possible approval, as well as the SCLD’s board of trustees,” says Baker. “It has yet to be approved by either entity.”

According to Baker, the original agreement, established in 2012, enabled the library district to purchase the Sprague site and attempt to get a bond passed that would fund a new facility. 

“After passage of a bond, the district would be reimbursed for the dollars spent on the land purchase,” says Baker. “That money was put in escrow, and when the bond didn’t pass the board considered asking for those funds back, which prompted discussions about whether to continue the agreement.”

Set to expire in October of this year, the agreement also stipulated that the city of Spokane Valley would buy back the land if the library district failed to pass a bond to build the facility.

The district has tried twice to pass a $22 million bond, and while both attempts had support from more than half of voters, they fell short of the required 60 percent approval.

Baker says the majority of the bond proceeds, about $14.5 million, would have gone toward building the Sprague library, and another $5 million was to be used to construct a smaller library at Sprague and Conklin Road. 

She says the bond measure also included $1.5 million in funding to remodel the Argonne Library at 4322 N. Argonne, and an additional $1 million in funding to refurbish the current Spokane Valley library at 12004 E. Main.

“Some current discussions have included options on how we could possibly lower the amount of the bond request,” says Baker.

Proposed changes to the agreement include extending the agreement to Oct. 31, 2022, with an option to extend an additional two years, and reducing the required minimum building size of the facility from 30,000 to 25,000 square feet. Other changes would allow extensive public input to help determine a final size for the library and further reduce the amount of money that can be sought in a future bond request, by obligating each partner to commit a $1.3 million investment in the site. 

The press release states that the $839,000 the library district paid to acquire the Sprague site and a smaller site at Sprague and Conklin for the envisioned library there would be used to meet its financial obligation. 

Meanwhile, the city’s $1.3 million investment includes the $839,000 received from library district for purchase of the Sprague site, and an additional $461,000 from the city’s general fund. That money would be used to pay for frontage and joint improvements to the Sprague/Herald site.

According to the release, if both the city council and library district approve the amendment, the library district likely will approach voters again in the next few years to request consideration of a bond to construct the Sprague library, as well as the facility at Sprague and Conklin. 

As the Journal previously reported, the Spokane Valley city government is planning to move into the newly constructed $14.1 million City Hall building later this summer. 

The 65,200-square-foot building, which will have three stories and a basement, is nearing completion at 10210 E. Sprague, the former University City Mall complex. The building was designed by Architects West Inc., of Coeur d’Alene, and is being built by Meridian Construction Inc., of Spokane.