The Timberland Regional Library is facing a budget deficit of about $700,000 in 2020, which is forcing the library board to consider some difficult choices — including the closure of libraries in Hoquiam, Montesano, Amanda Park, South Bend, Oakville and every one of the five counties the the system serves.
In come cases, libraries would be merged together.
“We are looking at being $460,000 in the red in 2019, and the year after that, $700,000,” Timberland library director Cheryl Heywood told the Hoquiam City Council Monday.
“We want the library to be the hub of the city,” she said. “We take no enjoyment in what we do to make (the budget) stable.”
The plan under consideration would essentially merge the Aberdeen and Hoquiam libraries at the Aberdeen location.
Heywood said she recently met with 19th district legislators Rep. Jim Walsh (R-Aberdeen) and Rep. Brian Blake (D-Aberdeen) and discussed the budget problems.
“I met with them last week with our finance manager Eric Lowell and shared the last three decades of revenue received,” she said. She explained in the 90s Timberland received about $9 million annually in Department of Natural Resources State Forest Land Trust timber revenue, and benefited from a 6 percent property tax levy. Those numbers have dropped with the 1 percent annual increase cap on property tax increases and declining state timber sales that are now contributing less than $2 million annually.
The sale of timber from Department of Natural Resources State Forest trust lands is used to fund schools, libraries and other county services. Heywood said she has expressed with Blake her frustration with the decline in funds, in part due to regulations dealing with endangered and threatened species like the marbled murrelet. She said Natural Resources “needs to see the deeper impact to their decisions about timber sales, how the money really impacts services.”
Heywood said she has received numerous letters from concerned library patrons, and reminded everyone the capital facilities proposal is just that: a proposal.
“This is a proposal, it’s not set in stone,” she said. “The board members are the final decision makers.”
The library’s capital facilities committee has called for a special board meeting in Tumwater for Oct. 10.
“The facilities board met (Oct. 3) and, as you probably saw in the newspaper, said they are recommending to set aside the proposal and use it just as a reference document,” said Heywood. The decisions will ultimately be made by the seven-person board of trustees.
Council president Paul McMillan asked Heywood why Hoquiam was tapped for possible closure when the city has just put $1 million into major renovations and improvements to the classic, old Carnegie library at the corner of 7th and K streets.
“We have to look at the areas we are reaching and the areas we are not reaching,” said Heywood. “We are trying to reach people who are not able to get to public libraries.” She added the fact that Aberdeen and Hoquiam libraries are four miles apart, meaning one could serve both cities. As to why Hoquiam was listed for closure and not Aberdeen, Heywood said only that public comments asking the same question would be taken into consideration by the board before any decisions are made.
Heywood pointed to the North Beach area as one that is underserved. The facilities report listed Moclips, Pacific Beach and Copalis Beach as such areas and stated the addition of mobile services based out of Aberdeen could expand services to these coastal areas.
According to the facilities plan proposal, if the Hoquiam branch is closed, Timberland could open a Library Express stand — a place to pick up and return books, staffed by one or two library assistants, with WiFi access and possibly remote lockers accessible with library cards to pick up and drop off items at the transit station adjacent to the current library. These locations cost less than $75,000 annually to operate, compared to the current location, which costs more than $300,000 a year to operate, according to the proposal.
Mayor Jasmine Dickhoff objected to the way the capital facilities plan was released, with no input from or warning to the cities the report’s proposals would impact.
“I believe we have stepped up as a city to take care of our library so I think we’re entitled to get a heads up,” she said. Dickhoff added when the city learned of the plan through a newspaper article it cast doubts on how much input the city would have in formulating a plan with Timberland to keep the Hoquiam branch open. She told Heywood about the amount of time and effort put in by city administrator Brian Shay, finance director Corri Schmid, herself and the council to secure the funding to pay for improvements to the building, and said the city has “spent more money on that building than any other city-run building.”
McMillan later said the proposal to close the Hoquiam library was “not acceptable. We’ve done all that Timberland has asked of us. Why aren’t Olympia or Lacey on a list to combine together? They’re close together too.”
Heywood said there is no definitive timeline for a decision on any library closures, but added the board must take action in the face of the looming budget deficit.
Dickhoff said she would be attending the special TRL board meeting Oct. 10, where there will be time set aside for public comment. Councilman Jim George made a motion to develop a “strongly worded letter” to be included in the public comments, which the council approved.
Public comment
Kristine Lowder said she moved to Hoquiam in 2002 and was attending her first City Council meeting because she wanted to tell Heywood about the library, “I love that place. I practically live there. The public library is the top of the heap in the list of community assets. I don’t know if you understand how vital the local library is to a community like ours. It would be a devastating loss to my family and community.”
Arnie Martin, a member of Hoquiam Friends of the Library since 2006, said the library is one of the reasons he moved to the city. He said the library’s meeting space is needed for many local groups who otherwise would not be able to find a space to meet.
“It’s difficult to find community meeting rooms,” he said. “The library is a great community service and I would hate to see that lost.”
Hoquiam resident Jim Blake penned a letter to Sen. Patty Murray that was read before the council. In it, he called the library “the center, the heart, the soul of our community.” He added, “A city’s library is at the heart of the American way of life and government. It is essential. A library is not a luxury.”
Blake concluded, “To lose this library would cast the city of Hoquiam into the dark age that has swept our nation. Without our library, Hoquiam will just be another sorry, economically depressed, drug-riddled backwater.”
