To the Northern Light Editor from Doralee Booth, Chamber Director
The Birch Bay Library Capital Facilities Area (the method state law provides for funding a public library capital improvement project through property taxes) has been determined. We now have the opportunity to vote YES on November 2nd and make a “legacy investment” to build a library in our community. Birch Bay needs a “hub” where we, our children, grandchildren, and our aging grandparents can gather in a friendly place, to be informed, inspired and build community.
I was fortunate live near a small library in the Montlake community in Seattle where I grew up. What a great time I had rummaging through the children’s library shelves to find my favorite books to read over and over again. Sometimes I didn’t even take books home, I just got cozy and read them in that safe and comfortable place. In my teen years the library became my first employer. I worked as a page through high school and college in the little Montlake library a few blocks from my home.
WA State has appropriated $2mil toward the library building project. To secure those funds and significantly reduce the cost of library construction we must vote yes to pass the Library Proposition 14. In addition, the library site, located on the shoreline of Birch Bay, will benefit the community by offering public access to the shoreline and tide flats in perpetuity. This is a huge "legacy gift" to our community since so much of our shoreline is private property. Imagine coming to the library with your family, getting some good reading material, and then heading for the beach!
Voting YES for building the Birch Bay Library will be the biggest gift we can give ourselves and our families now and in the future.
“Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation.” – Walter Cronkite
