A room too small

She’ll frighten them or inspire them into action.

Either way, Darlene Weber plans on selling Mill Creek residents a new library.

“We desperately need more space,” Weber said of the branch’s 7,300-square-foot facility.

She took over as managing librarian for the Mill Creek Library in March, and — with less than a week on the job — was stationed at a podium in City Hall, pleading with residents and City Council members to support construction of a new library in the planned East Gateway development, between 35th Avenue and Seattle Hill Road.

“I will say it over and over again until people are so sick of hearing it: we are the third busiest library in the Sno-Isle system, we serve 138,000 people, and our library is only 7,300 square feet,” Weber said. “The 26,000-square-foot Lynnwood Library — the largest in the district — serves only 72,000 people. … We need a new library.”

An estimated 20,000 square feet of library space is needed to adequately serve the greater Mill Creek service area, according to the Sno-Isle Libraries’ 2006 capital facilities plan.

Sno-Isle spokeswoman Mary Kelly said district leaders have already contacted the city about properties within the East Gateway boundaries.

“People are telling us that they want libraries in places they are going anyhow — where they’re going to wash their cars or do their shopping,” Kelly said. “What’s most appealing about East Gateway is the location. It’s positioned on a well-traveled roadway and accessible to everyone in our district’s fastest growing service areas.”

Discussions are underway between city and district leaders, but it may be several months before a detailed plan is floated past community members.

Should the district pursue a new facility in Mill Creek, voters will have to establish a special taxing district, or Library Capital Facilities Area, by a two-thirds super-majority.

Another hurdle: The district will have to compete for property at East Gateway like any other prospective buyer.

“When we built the new library in Monroe, we made an offer on a property contingent on the passage of the LCFA,” Kelly said. “We were fortunate in our negotiations that the property owner was willing to do that. It’s way too early to even speculate how we might go about that process in Mill Creek.”

Weber’s confident Mill Creek community members will support a library bond. The library’s circulation numbers are evidence enough of that.

“I’m so passionate about this,” she said. “Sometimes I think I kind of scare people with it, but I love libraries; everybody loves libraries.”

Libraries offer much more these days than a stock of good books — free Internet access, community events, story times, music and movies, and more.

“I look at all the things we cram in here and I wish more than anything we had a bigger areas for teenagers,” Weber said. “They have one shelf along the wall here. They deserve more than that.”