Mercer Island residents say King County Library System wasting millions on renovations
Oct 22, 2014, 7:35 AM | Updated: 4:01 pm
About 15 people showed up for a protest at the Mercer Island Library on Wednesday. (Photo: The Concerned Citizens Committee)
(Photo: The Concerned Citizens Committee)
Some Mercer Island residents are up in arms over plans to remodel the city’s library, saying it’s a big waste of money and far more ambitious than needed.
The King County Library System has been working with the community since last year on the plans. The system changed them several times to address concerns and appease a city-appointed library committee.
Gary Robinson with Concerned Citizens for the Mercer Island Library says the plans are far too ambitious and expensive.
“We approved a $730,000 bond issue for upkeep and upgrading facilities, greater access to materials and an automated book check out system. But they’re spending $3.4 million to completely tear out the inside of the library. They want to completely redo everything to match their image of what they think a library ought to be that has nothing to do with a small community library like we have.”
The group staged a protest at the library Wednesday morning to show their opposition to the project and discourage contractors from bidding on the job.
“They’re arrogant,” Robinson says. “They tell us we’re in charge we know what a library ought to be and we’re going to give you the library we think you should have and not what you want.”
The group’s complaints are likely to fall on deaf ears. The library system held a number of public meetings and worked for four months on the final plan.
“Throughout the process, including two discussions with the Mercer Island Library Committee, and additional feedback from the Concerned Citizen’s Committee and other community members, KCLS and its architects significantly adapted the preliminary plans to accommodate the community’s wishes,” KCLS says in a statement.
Construction is slated to begin later this year or early in 2015. A temporary facility is being sought while the library is closed for the work, which is expected to take at least a year.
“It doesn’t make any sense what they’re doing,” Robinson says. “They’re destroying a perfectly good library and filling up a landfill when they could easily just retrofit.”
