BRAD HORN/Nevada Appeal
By Dave Frank
Appeal Staff Writer
The Carson City Library needs more space and better resources to keep up with demands of a growing city. A 2010 ballot initiative is the best way to raise money for the project, according to Library Director Sara Jones.
The $20 million plan would be used to build a new 60,000 square-foot library, almost tripling the space of the current Roop Street building, in addition to buying more computers and room for research and education.
Jones said she hasn't decided where the money should come from, but said it might be raised through an increase in property taxes or sales taxes.
The old library built in 1971 is crowded and expensive to operate, she said, and visitors and library staff agree it's time for a change. The library surveyed about 1,200 people this summer and 86 percent said they wanted a centralized downtown library.
"More of everything is the bottom line," she said.
Staff haven't decided on where they will build the new library, she said, but it would be best if the three to four-acre spot was downtown because the library can help bring visitors there to shop.
The library will be ready for the city's planned population of 80,000 people, she said, and be "built to last."
Items needed in the new library include a self check-out station, more computers, a better building design that frees up librarians to help and a separate room for teens.
"They want to grow out of the itty-bitty chairs and easy readers," she said.
These plans will keep staff costs down, Jones said, requiring the much larger library to add only a few more employees.
Phyllis Patton, head of the library board of trustees, said more traffic and budget cuts have forced the board to look at using a ballot question.
"It's the only way to go unless we have some people step up with some very big private donations," she said.
The library had to reduce its budget, staff and hours this year to deal with the city's overall budget shortfall that came out of the slow economy.
But Thomas Huntington of Carson City, who was at the library Monday, said a new library "just means more property taxes."
He said the current two-story 22,000-square-foot library is small, but he thinks there is some extra room to use for book storage.
Bill Stodieck of Carson City, who was at the library Monday looking at Nevada history books, said a new library is needed, however, because the city has outgrown the current building.
"They're short on room," he said.
The library had looked at the federal building on Washington Street as a new space, but the federal government said it has no intention of selling the building.
If the library question does go on the ballot in 2010, it would be the second the library has had. The first was in 1998 when the question want to raise property taxes to expand the building. The question failed by about 400 votes.
• Contact reporter Dave Frank at dfrank@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1212.