Peggy Nystrom remembers sitting quietly through much of a community meeting at the Mukilteo Library last spring. She listened as people voiced a variety of wishes.
“People talked about needs for expanding that library – more space for children’s programs, more space for parking,” Nystrom said. “I’d been sitting in the front row all this time. Finally I said, ‘I wish we had your problems.’”
Nystrom is the librarian at Mariner High School, one of two high schools in the Mukilteo School District. The other is Mukilteo’s upscale Kamiak High School. Mariner is near 128th Street SW in unincorporated Snohomish County, south of the Everett city limits.
Last fall, Mariner was in the news when county Sheriff Rick Bart assigned a deputy to patrol the school. Bart said Mariner itself isn’t a problem, but it’s at the center of a high-crime area.
Nystrom, who’s been at Mariner since 2000, believes a public library would greatly help a place in need.
Everett is served by the Everett Public Library, which runs the Evergreen Branch at 9512 Evergreen Way. Those who aren’t Everett residents must pay a $100 annual fee to check out books. The closest Sno-Isle Libraries to Mariner High are in Mill Creek, Mukilteo or Lynnwood, too far for many in the Mariner area to go.
“A lot of kids don’t have access to public transportation. Many are students with a second language. These are all family issues,” said Nystrom, who estimates that as many as 20 percent of students at Mariner don’t have Internet access at home.
The high school library is open on school days from 6:45 a.m. to 3 p.m.
“My thought is, we don’t have a positive gathering place for our students, a place to sit with friends and get their work done,” Nystrom said.
When Nystrom heard about the June meeting at the Mukilteo Library, she visited every Mariner classroom and gathered 1,274 signatures on a petition. “The petition asked that we get a library in this area,” she said.
Jonalyn Woolf-Ivory, director of Sno-Isle Libraries, heard the plea. “She’s been just wonderful. I can’t say anything better about Sno-Isle,” Nystrom said. While planning meetings go on, Sno-Isle is “taking baby steps” to library access, Nystrom said.
For starters, a Sno-Isle bookmobile recently began making weekly stops at Voyager Middle School, near Mariner. The bookmobile is at Voyager from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays.
The bookmobile “is doing kind of a booming business,” said Mary Kelly, Sno-Isle Libraries’ community relations manager.
“About 50 students are coming by after school. They haven’t had easy access to a library,” Kelly said. “Over time, word will really catch on. We’re hoping to put together library service.”
While Nystrom hopes that means a new library will be built, sooner rather than later, “there are a lot of possibilities out there,” Kelly said.
On Camano Island, Sno-Isle patrons will soon go to the library in a rented storefront, thanks to a new pilot project. “They don’t want to drive to Stanwood,” Kelly said. The Camano Island library will cost $300,000 per year.
Sno-Isle, which has 20 libraries, opened its last new library in Snohomish in 2003.
Heidi Salzer is the mother of Mariner sophomore. Her son Michael, she said, was a frequent user of the Everett Public Library before the nonresident fee was imposed. “My youngest son, David, is in second grade and has only been to a public library a handful of times,” Salzer said. She said a library is a positive place for kids, and an avenue to literacy and responsibility.
Mariner High School Principal Brent Kline is fully behind Nystrom’s push for a library. “Peggy’s an inspiration to all of us,” Kline said. “Four years ago, we started a literacy focus at our school. ‘Literacy is freedom and power’ – that’s our motto.”
While they’re glad to see baby steps, they’d prefer great strides.
“A library should be at the top of everybody’s list,” Kline said.
“A public library is the heart of a community,” Nystrom said. “We need a heart in this area.”
Columnist Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlsteinjulie@heraldnet.com. Bookmobile stop
A Sno-Isle Libraries bookmobile has added a regular stop at Voyager Middle School from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays. The school is at 11711 Fourth Ave. W., Everett.
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