Expansion sought for dog-eared libraries

More than 230 children showed up for the start of the summer reading program at the Hayden branch of the Kootenai Shoshone Libraries last month and left little room for any other library patrons.

“There was a solid wall of bodies from the door to the fireplace,” said John Hartung, library district co-director. “People couldn’t get to the computers. The parking lot was full. We’re victims of our own success.”

In 1994, 8,379 children attended Kootenai library district programs. Last year, library programs attracted 29,050 children. Population in the district grew 79 percent during that time.

“We’d planned for increases, just not that much,” Hartung said.

That is one reason the Kootenai Shoshone Libraries is asking voters next month to approve a $3.4 million bond. Its libraries in Athol, Spirit Lake, Rathdrum, Hayden, Harrison and Pinehurst need remodeling and expanding, and its bookmobile needs replacing, Hartung said.

The district will pay off its current bond next year. If voters approve the new bond, payments will start in 2007. Homeowners would pay the same for the new bond – $5.08 a year for a $150,000 piece of property with a homeowner’s exemption – as they’re paying for the current bond, Hartung said. Library bond payments would be new to residents of Harrison and Pinehurst. Both joined the district after the current bond was approved and weren’t included in the payments.

If the bond passes, the district plans to use the money to add or expand meeting rooms in its libraries and add space for more computers for public use and for children’s programs.

Library meeting rooms are a public favorite, Hartung said. But the groups that use the rooms have grown with the population, and the rooms haven’t. Twenty people can fit into Hayden’s meeting room, which makes it too small for some groups, he said. Libraries in Spirit Lake and Athol have room for 10 each in communities that offer few free spaces for public meetings. Libraries in Harrison and Pinehurst have no public meeting rooms.

All the libraries were built before the Web became a major information source, so public computers are limited, Hartung said. The Post Falls Library serves about the same size population as the Hayden branch and has 40 computers with Internet access. Hayden has 14. The library in Pinehurst has no computers.

Children demonstrated the need for more space with their recent turnout for the summer reading program. More than 300 are participating in Rathdrum’s program.

“There’s no physical space,” Hartung said.

Consultants have helped the library district figure out about how much it would cost for the expansion they want, but the library board wouldn’t hire an architect unless the bond passed, Hartung said.

The district inadvertently mailed election information and absentee ballot request cards to people in Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls who were ineligible to vote in the bond election. Both cities have their own libraries and are out of the district.

“People who mail in absentee ballot requests and aren’t eligible won’t get a ballot,” Hartung said. “We’ll fix this. We’ll send apologies if people are angry.”