Spokane Valley voters should support the Spokane County Library District’s proposed $22 million bond measure that if passed, would enable construction of a new library branch, replacement of an old branch, and an expansion of a third. 

The proposal would enhance library services in three distinct parts of the Valley. While some might debate the relevance of libraries in the electronic age, such facilities are essential to ensure that everybody has access to information, whether it’s provided through the Internet or in the books that line shelves. 

The measure, for which ballots will be issued April 2 for an April 22 election, asks voters to form a Spokane Valley Library Capital Facility Area that would enable voters to fund construction of new library facilities in the area. That area includes the city of Spokane Valley, the town of Millwood, and the unincorporated areas served by West Valley, Central Valley, and East Valley school districts. Secondly, the district is asking the voters in that proposed capital facility area to fund the $22 million bond.

At that funding level, the bond would add $28 a year for 20 years to the property taxes for a homeowner with a home assessed at $200,000. 

If the bond measure passed, about $15 million would go toward construction of a 30,000-square-foot library branch along Sprague Avenue near Balfour Park, which would replace the district’s Spokane Valley branch at 12004 E. Main that was built in 1955 and last remodeled 28 years ago. 

An expansion of the neighboring Balfour Park also is planned in concert with the library project, and the combined projects could provide a much-needed boost along one of the more dilapidated stretches of Sprague Avenue. The vacant parcel on which the project is envisioned is situated along a stretch of Sprague Avenue, between University and Argonne roads, that’s rife with commercial vacancies and has seen little development activity in recent years.

Also, such a project could give the Valley a stronger civic presence closer to its geographic center and population base, something the city of Spokane Valley doesn’t have and talked in the past about developing.

Other projects include construction of a 10,000-square-foot library building along  Conklin Road in the Greenacres area of the Valley, at a cost of about $5 million, and a 6,000-square-foot expansion of the Argonne library branch, at 4322 N. Argonne. 

If passed, design work would start this year on the Spokane Valley branch, with construction expected to start next year. That branch would open in its new space in the summer of 2016, as currently planned, and construction of the Conklin library and the Argonne branch expansion would follow, with all projects expected to be wrapped up in 2017.

As project advocates point out, the Valley’s population has doubled since the Valley branch was built almost 60 years ago, and along with that, visits to the branches have risen. The district reports that an average of 900 people per day—about 309,000 people a year—visit the Valley branch. This suggests that it remains a valuable community resource worthy of taxpayers’ investment.