White Center Now: The blog about White Center

White Center Now contributor Deanie Schwarz covered today’s King County Library Board meeting, and says board members have decided again to put off a decision about potentially consolidating the White Center and Boulevard Park branches. This time, they say they want to wait until there is more information about Burien’s annexation intent; as reported here earlier, Burien is now studying the possibility, with financial feasibility updates expected later this summer. More details to come.

If you went by the site of what was scheduled to be the White Center Library Guild fundraising yard sale today – sorry, they decided to postpone it because of the rain. The Guild is tentatively looking at rescheduling it for next Saturday, but will send official information when the decision’s made.

Here’s the official flyer – be there!

Story and photos by Deanie Schwarz
Reporting for White Center Now

Members of the White Center Library Guild have kicked off a signature drive for a petition that will be presented to the King County Library Services Board of Trustees later this month.

Guild President Rachel Levine (far left in top photo) told WCN the Guild will continue gathering signatures from all ages of the libraries’ users through June 16 at various locations, including stations at the libraries.

The White Center Library Guild petition reads:

“We, the undersigned, wish to maintain the White Center and Boulevard Park libraries in their current locations;

Accessible libraries are crucial to the academic improvement of our children who struggle to overcome poverty;

We ask the KCLS Board of Trustees to delay any decision about the future of our libraries until after annexation is resolved.”

Tonight at the 34th District Democrats’ meeting, Liz Giba told that group the petition got about 100 signatures in just a matter of one hour.

At the most recent meeting of the KCLS Board on May 25, a discussion of consolidating the Boulevard and White Center libraries was postponed after appeals from the Guild and King County Councilmember Joe McDermott sought delay of any final decision until the issue of annexation of the unincorporated North Highline area has been discussed by the city of Burien.

The board postponed a decision but asked the staff to provide it with suggested locations of potential new-library sites at the June 28 board meeting at the Issaquah Library Services Center.

Before then, on June 18, the KCLS Board will have its next Planning Meeting at the Burien Library which, according to Levine, in part determines the agenda for the next Board meeting. It will be open to the public to attend, but does not allow for public comment. Two days later, the Burien City Council is scheduled to begin discussions about annexing the remaining North Highline unincorporated area. Elected city leaders have sent a letter to the KCLS Board requesting a delay of any library consolidation decision until the Burien annexation discussion has approached a more definitive conclusion, perhaps by mid-summer.

One more note: Legislators from the 34th and 11th districts have sent a letter both opposing the consolation and exhorting the library trustees to at least wait until there’s an annexation decision. Read it here.

Story and photos by Deanie Schwarz
Reporting for White Center Now

We’ve already reported that, when the King County Library Services Board of Trustees met Tuesday evening in the North Bend Library, board members voted to delay a potential vote on the Library Service Area Analysis for North Highline and related staff recommendations. Here are details of how that unfolded:

Speakers advocating for a delay in any vote to proceed with consolidation of the Boulevard Park and White Center Library’s included King County 8th District Councilmember Joe McDermott. He told the Board that the issue of potential annexation for the areas remained very much in flux, since Seattle’s councilmembers have said they will revisit the issue next February, but won’t stand in the way if Burien wants to pursue annexation sooner.

Considering that, and the indication that Burien’s council may start annexation discussion this summer, Councilmember McDermott encouraged the Board to delay any action or vote regarding the libraries for at least a year when such consideration might be more appropriate, or at least might provide enough time for the process to move forward more definitively.

Director Bill Ptacek said that the Board had already delayed a decision regarding the North Highline area and that the interim result of that delay was the Library Service Analysis recently conducted by surveying people online and over the phone. The surveys, according to Project Manager Jennifer Wiseman, provided a lot of feedback regarding much-needed improvements to the Boulevard Park and White Center Libraries which would be addressed by the now seven-year old 2004 bond funds. The survey also, she said, “tested” the consolidation idea via two questions and suggested there’s support for it – in the first question, about 65% support via the phone surveys (800 respondents) and 44% online. Then, when the second question was asked with specific details about consolidation, the support increased 5% on the phone interviews and 10% on the online questionnaires, yielding just slightly over 54% approval online). Wiseman also noted that the online respondents were not representative of the community and skewed the results because they were predominantly white female college graduates over 50.

White Center Library Guild President Rachel Levine and North Highline Unincorporated Area Council members Pat Price (a Boulevard Park resident) and Barbara Dobkin (a White Center resident) also spoke. Price pointed out to the Board that White Center has a high percentage of people without vehicles, as well as little east-west bus service, so the walking distance from schools and homes to libraries is important. Dobkin told the Board that she and other voters who supported the 2004 bond did so with the understanding that bond funds would be put toward improvements as designated within the bonds, not a closure or consolidation. “This isn’t what we voted for.”

Ptacek, in addressing the reallocation of the 2004 bond funds, said that the recommendation to reallocate the bond funds to a new library are based on the “good bids we’ve been getting” for construction. The Library Guild’s Levine expressed her concerns about the impartiality of the agency that conducted the surveys, but also read a letter on behalf of the Guild vowing to continue to work together with the KCLS Board.

A community member and retired teacher who now volunteers at Cascade and works with White Center youth in service projects held up a photograph of the kids “to whom we have a moral responsibility.” Kids in the Highline area are out of school on Fridays early and they need a safe place to study, away from crowded, noisy homes and where they have access to resources, she said, imploring the Board not to forget the children of White Center.

Board Trustee Bill Spitzer moved that any decision be postponed until the next Board meeting in June (to be held in Issaquah at the Library Services Center). He said that he was reluctant to vote with only three of the five Board members present. He also said he was sensitive to the logistical dilemma for White Center residents who might not have been able to attend a meeting 45 miles away, even though more than a dozen community meetings have been held on the matter.

With that, the motion was seconded, and the action item to address the North Highline Library Service recommendations was delayed until at least next month’s meeting. Board President Eadie asked the staff to provide the Board a list of potential sites, if any are known, for a new North Highline location at that meeting.

Will the King County Library Board vote to consolidate the White Center and Boulevard Park libraries? It’s on the agenda today for their 5 pm meeting – at the North Bend Library. Find the agenda linked here. White Center Now will be there and we’ll let you know what happens.

The future of the King County Library System branches in White Center and Boulevard Park has been discussed repeatedly during the debate over annexation. Suddenly, there is the possibility that the county may consolidate the two, and we have just received this letter from King County Councilmember Joe McDermott expressing opposition:

To Board of Trustees, King County Library System:

I am dismayed that the King County Library System Board of Trustees would consider consolidation of the Boulevard Park and White Center Libraries at this time.

To the best of my knowledge, a formal proposal to have staff pursue plans for consolidation first became public on May 12. To think that the KCLS Board might take action on May 24, a mere 12 days later, at a meeting scheduled to be held far from North Highline – in North Bend – is extremely dismissive of my constituents. Further, it fails to recognize their hard work in advocating for their community’s needs.

While the timing issue itself is enough to delay the vote, there is also the issue of boundaries and service. For years KCLS has failed to replace and renovate these facilities despite their specific inclusion in the 2004 bond measure, citing uncertainty over annexation and proximity to what may become part of Seattle. With Seattle showing no initiative at this time and Burien having the potential to advance a vote as early as next spring, to take action based on potential annexation by Seattle is shortsighted at best.

I urge the King County Library System Board of Trustees to postpone any action that advances consolidation of the White Center and Boulevard Park Libraries. Further, I renew my call for KCLS to deliver on their 2004 promise to voters and take up replacement and expansion of the White Center Library.

-Joe

Joe McDermott
King County Councilmember, District 8

Coming up one week from Saturday!

The White Center Library drop box is gone – they’re all gone, except downtown and Tukwila. So unless you can make it to one of those boxes, you need to get your ballot in the mail – with a stamp – by tonight. The King County Library System levy is the big deal today – read about it here.

UPDATE FROM ORIGINAL POST: The King County Council is on “furlough” this Friday, but the rest of county operations will be running as usual.