STANWOOD – Aside from voter approval, a new Stanwood Public Library land deal announced last week hinges on the support of one other constituency – the City Council.
City and library officials talked for months about jointly developing a downtown site for a new city hall and police station, as well as a new library.
The library struck a deal with the Ovenell family to purchase four acres on 92nd Avenue NW, north of the school district’s bus barn, for about $600,000.
The deal requires the city’s cooperation to split that cost and use two of those acres for the new city hall and police station, City Councilwoman Cheryl Baker said.
“We really can’t go forward without the library, and they can’t go forward without us,” she said.
That cooperation was recently confirmed with a resolution and memorandum of understanding,
She described why the city joined the library effort.
“We were looking for a possible site for a new city hall,” she said. “At the same time, the library was looking, so we decided to let the library pick where they wanted to go. Then we said, ‘We’re going there with you.’ “
Baker added that the joint campus will help unite the city’s east and west downtown areas with Heritage Park.
Mayor Herb Kuhnly said the benefits include shared parking. “Working together, you end up with a whole lot better project,” he said.
The Sno-Isle Regional Library System will ask voters in Stanwood and Camano Island to approve a $9 million construction bond for a 20,000-square-foot, single-story library. The election is Sept. 14.
Voters will be asked to approve setting up a taxing district (using the boundaries of the Stanwood Camano School District) and then approving the new tax, which would cost the owner of a $200,000 home about $35 a year.
The city is not as far along in figuring out its new building. Local historian Dave Eldridge said the current City Hall was built during World War I or in the early 1920s. Its 12 employees are very cramped, finance director Landy Manuel said.
Baker’s colleagues on the council, Shelley Klasse and Gil Powell, plan to tour other cities that have combined police stations and city halls to get ideas.
Manuel has suggested the city consider working with the National Development Council, a nonprofit construction contractor in Seattle that has experience building public facilities.
“They pay and have the building constructed,” Manuel said. “Then, at the end when they’re done, we lease it from them for an equal amount to pay off the money they borrowed to build it.”
The arrangement allows the city to benefit from the company’s experience and save city staff the hassle of acting as contractors, Manuel said.
But first, voters will get their say about the library.
“We won’t know until the election in September,” Kuhnly said.
Reporter Scott Morris: 425-339-3292 or smorris@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
