Arlington transfers ownership of library building

Sno-Isle Libraries will now be able to begin making important maintenance upgrades to the Arlington Library after gaining full ownership of the building this summer.

The city of Arlington transferred ownership of the library building to Sno-Isle Libraries after 22 years of an annexation agreement.

The library building was constructed about 40 years ago when the town was not part of the Sno-Isle Libraries District.

In 1999, local voters approved an annexation into the library district though, and the city agreed to maintain the library building they owned while Sno-Isle Libraries provides library services.

The new agreement is meant to give Sno-Isle Libraries a more comfortable position spending their funds improving the building.

“It gives Sno-Isle [Libraries] confidence that their capital investments will be worthwhile,” said James Trefry, administrative service director with the city of Arlington, during the May 3 meeting where the decision was approved.

The transaction was finalized in June.

Library services are not expected to see any major changes because of the transaction.

“Day-to-day it won’t really change anything,” said Kurt Batdorf, communications specialist with the Sno-Isle Libraries.

The decision was made “primarily to facilitate the investment and necessary infrastructure improvements to allow it to open to the public,” said Trefry.

“The main benefit to the community is the continuation of a library facility within the boundaries of the city,” he said.

The biggest improvement for the library will be a heating and cooling system, which library district officials are in the process of starting.

“We’re getting bids on that right now,” said Batdorf.

The air filtration capacity is lacking on the current system, which means little ability to remove viruses from the air and no ability to provide air conditioning.

“Because it has no air conditioning it just gets very hot to work inside of there and it is not a great setup,” said Batdorf.

The Arlington Library had to close during the June heatwave this year due to safety reasons.

And that wasn’t the first time the library has had to close.

“We’ve had to close due to smoke, as well, because it can’t filter out that from the air either,” said Batdorf. “Hopefully the new heating system will mean fewer closures once we get that air conditioning."

Other libraries in the system provide cooling centers to their community during heat waves, but it is not known right now whether Arlington will have the capacity for that.

“That will depend on the size of the air conditioning,” said Batdorf. “Certainly Sno-Isle would like to provide as many cooling stations as they can."

Sno-Isle Libraries is also working on replacing the roof of the Arlington library building.

“It’s just old and it needs to be replaced,” said Batdorf.

Although there aren’t any major issues with the roof right now, its age indicates that it is time for a replacement.

“We do plan to make more upgrades here and there, although we haven’t identified what that may entail,” said Batdorf.