Northern Weber cities fighting back for new library
Patrons enjoy the services available at the Weber County Library in North Ogden Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2015. The Weber County Commission is considering the possibility of expanding the library to the south and relocating the existing skate park. (BRIAN NICHOLSON/Special to the Standard-Examiner)
Gracie Mecham, 10 and her father Tyler spend time at the Weber County Library as Eddy Garcia works on his skateboarding skills at the skate park adjacent to the library in North Ogden Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2015. The Weber County Commission is considering the possibility of expanding the library to the south and relocating the existing skate park.
Corben Watkins, 9, cruises around on a kick scooter at the skate park adjacent to the Weber County Library in North Ogden on Jan. 7, 2015.
NORTH OGDEN — The Weber County Library Board voted against building a new library for residents of northern Weber County, but city leaders in North Ogden, Pleasant View and Harrisville are determined to have county commissioners hear their viewpoint and get a new library for their residents.
The three cities have drafted a statement pleading their case to the commission, and North Ogden unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday night asking the commission to reject the library board’s vote. North Ogden Mayor Brent Taylor said the three cities plan to meet with the commission to go over their proposals.
North Ogden has offered to donate the land where the old public works building was housed just north of Acres Market off Washington Boulevard. The land is approximately four acres, and Taylor said it is worth about $1.2 million. The city has also offered to take care of some of the site work and is considering a cash donation. The North Ogden Council didn’t include a dollar amount in the resolution, but said it would negotiate. In return, North Ogden wants to acquire the space of the old library, which is adjacent to the city offices.
“We’re not asking for a library like the Pleasant Valley library right now, we are just asking to take the money we have and instead of putting it on a piece of ground that can get bigger, put it somewhere where it can,” Taylor said.
North Ogden City Councilman Kent Bailey created the resolution. He said that a Dan Jones poll was done last year and it was found that the North branch was the most-used branch in the county.
“The library system has created these community gathering places and we feel we deserve to have one in the north end of Weber County,” Bailey said.
“The other glaring problem is the parking issue,” Bailey said. The Pleasant Valley Branch in Washington Terrace has 200 stalls, the Roy branch has 290 stalls, the Huntsville branch has 110 and the North branch has 24. “We have no space for any more,” Bailey said.
Taylor noted that the architect and the board were banking on the fact that the city would move the city skate park (at the city’s expense) for parking. “Even if we did that, there wouldn’t be nearly enough parking,” Taylor said.
Bailey said the county knew it needed the northern end of Weber County’s votes to get the library bond passed two years ago, so they “threw a bone” by adding in the $5 million to renovate the current location without a lot of foresight.
Weber County Library Director Lynnda Wansgsgard said that is not the case.
“I am hurting about this as much as they are,” Wangsgard said. “I want things to be different, but we do have to go forward with what we can do now.”
In the joint statement, the cities pointed out the difference in library size.
“There are 40,000-74,000 square foot libraries loaded with incredible amenities and hundreds of parking stalls in the center-east, southwest, and southern areas of the county, while the six northern/northwestern cities are planned to share a 23,000 square foot library with almost no parking and no room for future expansion. The 2013 Library Bond set aside $23 million to build a breathtaking 74,000 square foot ‘headquarters’ branch. That single library has more square footage than the five Davis County libraries located in Bountiful, Centerville, Clearfield, Kaysville, and Syracuse combined,” the statement said.
Wangsgard said that while the numbers are correct, it should be taken into consideration that the headquarters branch in Roy will house many materials for the entire county that shouldn’t be included in comparison size.
Area residents have been vocal about the board’s decision. A petition with over 400 signatures is circuiting online and Taylor’s Facebook page has had several comments about the issue. North Ogden resident Rakel Marie said those making the decisions haven’t been to the North library.
“They have never had to circle the block during story hour, parking across the street. Nearly all the books we read are requests from other libraries … we need a new library, of that there is no question,” Marie said.
Eric Thompson said that not building a library now means a new one will need to be built in 15 years.
Taylor and other city leaders say it speaks volumes that all the cities have united on the issue and just want fair treatment.
“There are no members of the library board from this end of the county,” Taylor said.
“We are not asking for special treatment or anything extra, but simply that northern Weber County get something at least resembling the beautiful, large, community-center style libraries built or being built elsewhere in Weber County. We respect that there is not enough budget to build us a large, community-center library right now, so we offered a new site that would have allowed that type of library to be built over time, in phases,” the cities’ statement reads.
North Ogden Councilman Lynn Satterthwaite expressed frustration with how the library board has treated the northern contingent. He said the city is happy to help with fundraising efforts, but is worried with how much latitude it will be given.
“They gave us about 45 seconds to come up with $3.5 million in the meeting, so it’s hard to say how lenient they would be,” Satterthwaite said.
Taylor said they are working the county commission to set a meeting date that will occur in the near future.
