For the second straight year, Spokane Valley voters have an opportunity to show their support for the library system that ably serves them. We hope this time they will do just that.

The Spokane County Library District is asking them to approve a $22 million bond measure to fund four projects in the greater Spokane Valley and Millwood areas. The measure is listed on election ballots being mailed out this week, ahead of the Aug. 4 official election date, and we think it merits approval.

If approved, affected Valley homeowners will pay an additional 11 cents per $1,000 of assessed value, or $22 a year on a $200,000 home, for 20 years. That’s on top of 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed value currently paid by all homeowners within the district for library services.

The currently proposed tax increase would be more modest, and appropriately so, than a 14 cents-per-thousand library district measure that voters defeated at the polls in April 2014. Voters sent a mixed message in that two-question election, with 59 percent approving the creation of a Spokane Valley Library Capital Facility Area, but just 54 percent voting in favor of the bond measure. The bond required a 60 percent supermajority to pass.

Library district officials believe that the two-question structure of last year’s ballot measure might have confused some voters and played a role in the bond’s defeat. This year, that won’t be an obstacle because the only required vote will be on the bond.

The capital facilities district that was established—and remains in effect through this election—includes the city of Spokane Valley, the town of Millwood, and the unincorporated areas served by the West Valley, Central Valley, and East Valley school districts, and the responsibility for paying off the bond would be borne by homeowners in that area.

If the bond measure passes, about $14.5 million would go toward construction of a 30,000-square-foot library branch along Sprague Avenue near Balfour Park. That branch would replace the district’s Spokane Valley branch at 12004 E. Main that was built in 1955 and last remodeled nearly 30 years ago. 

Other projects include construction of a 10,000-square-foot library along Conklin Road in the Greenacres area, at a cost of about $5 million, and a 6,000-square-foot expansion of the Argonne library branch, at 4322 N. Argonne, for about $1.5 million. Also, about $1 million would go toward revamping the 60-year-old Spokane Valley Library building near Sprague and Pines as a technology learning center and centralizing district administration there.

While some people might question the relevance of libraries in the electronic age, we believe—as we’ve stated before in this space—that such facilities continue to play an important role in ensuring that everyone has access to information, whether it’s provided through the Internet or in the books that line shelves.

The Valley’s population has doubled since the Valley branch was built, and library facilities—as project advocates have made clear—simply haven’t kept up with steadily rising public demand for library services. It’s time to correct that shortcoming.