By Leslie Moriarty
Herald Writer
SNOHOMISH — Not a nail has been pounded nor a brick mortared and the new library in Snohomish is already off budget.
And neither the city nor the library facilities district wants to absorb the costs.
What’s at the heart of the problem is $635,358 in costs to clean up and remove hazardous waste from the library site near Third Street and Maple Avenue. That location is where the Central Feed Mill stood. Part way through the demolition process, construction crews discovered old railroad ties, concrete slabs and petroleum-soaked soil.
Those things had to be removed, and that more than doubled the costs of preparing the site for construction.
The library budget is based on an $8 million bond issue approved by voters this year. The district basically follows the same boundaries as the Snohomish School District. Of that amount, $800,000 was budgeted for purchase of the library site from the city.
But those costs look now like it may be more around $1.5 million because of the soil cleanup.
Jonalyn Woolf-Ivory, deputy director of the Sno-Isle Regional Library System, of which Snohomish is a member, said that would mean a budget of
$6.5 million to build the library.
That may mean a smaller building than the 23,500-square-foot one planned, or the library district having to buy a smaller piece of the property from the city, less equipment in the library, or some combination of the three.
At a recent city council meeting, Woolf-Ivory said she wants to work with the city to determine how it and the library district can share the added burden of the cleanup without having to cut short the plans for the library.
The actual soil contamination is not considered to be a long-term safety issue, city officials said. Tests showed the petroleum most likely was diesel fuel from trains, and contractors have removed the contaminated soil.
The levels of contamination were mostly two to four times what is considered acceptable by state thresholds and needed to be cleaned up, but one area was at 70 times the threshold. Costs to remove the contaminants were high because some of the fuel had reached deeper soil levels and was more widespread than first anticipated.
Council members asked city staff to look into possible state grants to help cover the cleanup.
Interim city manager Jack Collins said that might be an option because he doesn’t think the city is responsible for the additional costs.
But at least one councilman said the city has an obligation to make sure there is adequate money remaining after the purchase of the land to build an adequate library.
Councilman Kurt Meacham said he didn’t want to see a library that was so scaled down it wouldn’t serve the public that is paying for it.
Construction is expected to get underway in February or March 2002.
You can call Herald Writer Leslie Moriarty at 425-339-3436
or send e-mail to moriarty@heraldnet.com.
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