Good chunk of funds will go to machinery, equipment

Volunteer Margaret Yates shelves books for the Friends of Sequim Library book sale on Feb. 8. (Matthew Nash/Olympic Peninsula News Group )

The North Olympic Library System plans to keep its capital costs modest this year.

Paving a portion of the library parking lot in Port Angeles and painting the Friends of Sequim Library’s book sale buildings are targeted as some of the bigger projects between the library system’s four branches that also include public libraries in Clallam Bay and Forks.

The library system board approved a $347,450 capital budget on Jan 23.

The decision follows the unanimous approval of a $4.96 million 2020 operations budget Nov. 21.

Library staff budgeted $80,000 for paving, which Library Director Margaret Jakubcin said could be done this summer for the “badly deteriorated heavy traffic zone.”

Staff will continue to replace carpeting in the Port Angeles Library this year, too.

Jakubcin said it’s been a multi-year project to replace the 20-plus-year-old carpet.

“It’s such a big space that we’ve done it in little chunks to try and not disrupt operations,” she said.

A timeline hasn’t been set for painting the Sequim Friends’ exterior buildings behind the Sequim Library, but Jakubcin said library system personnel will collaborate with its volunteers to make a schedule.

The building is owned by the library system, and Friends’ volunteers operate a monthly book sale to benefit the library’s Summer Reading Program and speakers.

Last week, the Friends’ group donated $24,000 toward programming at the Sequim Library.

Liz Phelps, Friends of Sequim Library’s treasurer, said the group is “pleasantly thrilled” to hear about the new coat of paint.

Sequim Library

Jakubcin wrote in the Jan. 23 capital budget staff report that the library system “expended very sparingly for building and structure improvements at the (Sequim) facility (but) following the failure of the November 2018 bond measure, which would have funded replacement of the existing building, this budgeting approach has been adjusted as appropriate to address support continued use of this facility for longer time period than previously hoped.”

Trustees voted last February to wait until at least 2021 to pursue expansion at the Sequim Library again following a 2018 general election vote when a $12.4 million bond to build a 17,000-square-foot library failed to meet the 60 percent supermajority.

Only 58.6 percent of voters approved the measure.

Jakubcin said library system staff members and board are looking into “long-term-temporary” mechanisms to help the facility for the next five to 10 years.

“We’re looking at how can we make better use of space,” Jakubcin said.

Other projects

A majority of the library system’s 2020 capital budget — $217,650 — will go to machinery and equipment, such as updating and licensing the library system’s information technology and purchasing a hybrid van ($45,000) to transport materials six days a week at the four branch libraries.

Jakubcin wrote in her report that about $154,000 of unspent capital projects from 2019 are transferred to reserves for this year because of deferred computer/network projects.

Library staff members said they don’t anticipate using the full capital budgets this year either for several reasons, such as priority changes, alternative revenues coming in and not using emergency funds.

The library system’s Port Angeles Capital Reserve, a 1997 fund established with construction of the Port Angeles Library, contributed $100,000 to this year’s capital budget.

Library staff said they anticipate its remainder at about $879,000 to be used in the coming years to replace the Port Angeles Library’s HVAC system and roof.

Weather’s impact

Visits and checkouts were down last year because of winter storms, staff said.

Assistant Library Director Noah Glaude reported on Jan. 23 that patron visits declined 1 percent from 2018-2019, and material checkouts were down 3 percent.

He wrote in his 2019 report the decline came “when weeks of inclement weather closed NOLS locations for several full and partial days, and patrons has difficulty reaching the Library.”

“Compared to 2018, patron visits were down nearly 10 percent in the first quarter of 2019, but visits were up the rest of the year,” he wrote.

“Similarly, checkouts and renewals were down significantly more during the first half of the year than the second half.”

Other 2019 usage statistics include:

• Public computer use went down 9,000 hours in 2019, or 12 percent from 2018. The continued decline dates back to 2017.

• Wi-Fi use went up, with patrons accessing it 71,252 times in 2019 at the four branches.

• Summer Reading Challenge participants rose 17 percent, to 3,560 people.

This year, staff members plan initiatives to increase usage, such a library card campaign and to continue others such as remaining fine-free.

For more information about the library system, visit www.nols.org.

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Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach him at [email protected].