State can show commitment to public libraries

You don’t have to read between the lines to realize Wasilla needs a new public library. Replacing the city’s cramped 8,200-square-foot building has been on Wasilla’s wish list for the better part of two decades.

Nearly 100,000 people a year pass through the library’s doors on Main Street, where it’s been for the past 35 years. In fact, the library was deemed insufficient to meet the needs of residents and users in a 1997 city space needs assessment. Nearly 13 years later, it seems the city and Friends of Wasilla Public Library are finally close to turning the page on a new chapter.

City council and the public got a first look this week at a new project development plan prepared by friends of the library and The Foraker Group, a 53-page document that meticulously outlines the plan for building a new 23,500-square-foot library at the corner of Crusey and Swanson streets behind Wasilla Middle School. It’s a $16.3 million project that’s already received more than $1.3 million in grants and in-kind funding, including the donation of a 4-acre lot by the Mat-Su Borough.

Now the ball is in the Legislature’s court. The city will ask our lawmakers for an $8.1 million appropriation to finally get this new library built. It’s an effort that will also take commitment from city and area residents to raise another $6 million, most likely to come from some form of sales tax increase.

What better way for our state lawmakers to show their commitment to public libraries and the important roles they fill in our communities than to approve this funding? It’s also fitting this can happen in the upcoming legislative session, as 2013 marks the 75th anniversary of the Valley’s oldest library.

The Wasilla Library Association founded the area’s first library on Jan. 23, 1938, with a collection of 91 books. Eight years later, the library had 3,000 items and was situated in a 12-foot-by-14-foot log cabin that was open three hours a week.

Over the years, the library continued to grow until 1978, when the current facility was opened. That had 4,000 square feet, which was expanded to 8,200 square feet in 1985.

Since then, the only things that have expanded at the Wasilla Public Library have been its collection of materials, services offered and patrons.

How the city will come up with its millions to fund the library is still to be determined, although a sales tax of some sort seems the most equitable. That’s because of the nearly 100,000 people who use the library, about 80 percent don’t live in city limits.

For 20 years, Wasilla residents, administration and Friends of Wasilla Public Library have shown dogged commitment to bring a top-class facility that could be a showcase for Valley libraries. Now with the generous donation of land from the Mat-Su Borough and a grant from the Rasmuson Foundation to do preliminary planning, it’s time the Legislature steps up and pens a happy ending to this story.