Arlington to vote on $8.8 million bond for library

Published 10:41 pm Thursday, April 17, 2008

ARLINGTON — There’s barely an empty seat in the house.

After school on most weekdays, the Arlington Library is crowded. Student backpacks and homework cover the tables and kids sit on the floor in the children’s area. There’s a lineup to use the nine Internet computers, the four chairs in the magazine section are always occupied, and those book browsing in the stacks often bump into one another.

Preschoolers, toddlers and their parents, with accompanying strollers and diaper bags, crowd into the library on Tuesday and Thursday mornings for story time. Because it’s so packed, some don’t return the following week.

If anyone has questions about why a new library might be needed, managing librarian Kathy Bullene said she is happy to take the time to talk. As long as she can continue to help those lined up at the reference desk.

Voters in the Arlington School District east of I-5 and south to 164th Street NE are being asked to decide whether they want a new library for their community. The May 20 ballot, which is scheduled to be mailed out at the end of April, seeks approval to issue an $8.8 million in bonds to fund construction and other costs.

The cost to homeowners will be about 14 cents per $1,000 of a property’s assessed value. The owner of a $300,000 house would pay $42 a year.

This will be the third time since 2000 that voters have been asked to decide the future of the library. In 2006, voters rejected an $8.1 million bond for a new library. The measure fell 28 votes short of the required 60 percent supermajority.

The last election was so close, said George Boulton, co-chairman of the Citizens Committee for a New Arlington Library, that the majority who voted yes deserve another chance to voice their desire for a new library.

Boulton said he would consider chartering a bus to take undecided voters to see the new libraries in Snohomish and Monroe.

“I would like to show people what they could have right here in Arlington,” Boulton said.

While there appears to be no organized opposition to the library bond, Arlington resident Ron Carlson said he is concerned about increased taxes.

Property owners already pay a maintenance and operations tax to Sno-Isle Libraries, said Carlson, who acknowledged that the maintenance and operations tax cannot pay to build a new library.

“But how many times do the voters have to say no to new taxes, especially in this economy,” Carlson said.

Reporter Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427 or gfiege@heraldnet.com.