Letter to the Editor: Vote no on the Library bond proposal
Posted October 11, 2022 at 9:00 pm by San Juan Update
I love libraries. I think they’re extremely important. We have a great library in Friday Harbor. It’s important to note for populations up to 10,000, the average size of a library is 0.6 square feet per person, or in our case 6,000 square feet. Our current library is over 8,000 square feet on 0.66 acres. Our population on San Juan Island is just under 10,000. Therefore, we are already 2,000 square feet over the national average for a library in a community of our size. What is being proposed at the Life Care Center, 15,000 square feet, is far more than what is appropriate for our community. If the library truly thinks they need additional space, it would be far less expensive to build up and add a story to the existing building.
Currently the plan is to tear down the Life Care Center, a functional 28,000 square-foot building with a commercial kitchen and laundry facility. It is utter lunacy. This extremely important fact is not revealed in the information the library is sharing with the public about the proposed project. This would create an unimaginable amount of building material waste. Because most material would not be allowed to go into our landfill, it would have to be transported via the ferry on diesel fuel semi-trucks off island to other landfills. The demolition plan for the Life Care Center is extremely wasteful and environmentally inappropriate on multiple levels. The well-established gardens could not survive the demolition. If there is asbestos in the building, it is far easier and cheaper to encapsulate than to tear out and put in any landfill. Perfectly good valuable construction material would be destroyed and hauled away.
With some repairs and remodeling and for far less than $20 million, the old Life Care Center could be converted using the principals of adaptive reuse to create affordable housing and mixed uses. Currently the zoning is professional use. I have confirmed that a change to multifamily and mixed use would be supported by the Town of Friday Harbor. This could address our community’s real immediate need, housing. As someone who has restored several historic houses and created adaptive reuse of multiple buildings in Friday Harbor, I speak from years of knowledge and practical experience.
Finally, the library claims that the project is going to cost $20 million — that is $2,000+ for every man, woman and child on the island. If you vote yes, you have agreed to go in debt for a bond for $12 million, which is only a portion of what they have estimated the project is going to cost. Your vote will determine whether you personally agree to go into debt for everyone in your family.
If this bond proposal passes, a 28,000 square-foot building will be demolished. That’s a lot of building material that could be better utilized in an adaptive reuse plan. I guarantee if this levy passes it will create a huge boondoggle in Friday Harbor. The practical, economic, and environmental reality dictates to vote no on the library bond.
Lynn Danaher
San Juan Island
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Categories: Around Here
2 comments:
2 comments...
While a great letter, it has some gaps which I would like filled. I have been planning a yes vote but this letter is enlightening.
In 1997, this library was reported as the busiest library in the state, per capita. Where does it stand now in such rankings?
If the internal walls have 2′ water damage requiring wood structure replacement, what is the status of the external walls, made, of course, with the same component: wood. If the external walls also require replacement (unless there is a building code approved way of putting each vertical board on stilts to remove the bottom 2′, then it seems the structure truly is doomed anyway thus rendering this argument as moot–the building has to go regardless who should acquire the building, it seems.
The current building may require reinforcing the exterior walls to hold the weight of a second floor addition if it was not designed for a future floor addition. If it were to require a steel foundation like the building next to Dr. Gossom’s former operastion required, that would be an extremely significant addition and when finished, the parking problem at the current library is not addressed, which is surely one of the goals of the new site.
43 years ago, when we moved here the Library was located in the Town Hall. They moved to the former Shrimp Boat Restaurant location. We have a highly educated population and really need a new Library. The building is falling apart. My husband ran the downstairs book room for many years for the Friends of the Library.—-until it was flooded by runoff from the property in back.
We need a new Library and –yes–I know we have to pay for it–but that Library has saved me thousands of dollars in the cost of books. As a former teacher of reading ( 35 years) I say–Please vote Yes. Many people have already written about the things the Library does for the Community–so I won’t do that again.
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