Lease demands weigh on mall library

From left, four-year-old Dominick Rose, Grace Rose, 8, and Carson Rose, 7, of Vancouver, listen to an audio story at the Vancouver Mall Community Library. Officials might be forced to close the popular branch early next year. (TROY WAYRYNEN/The Columbian)

TROY WAYRYNEN/The Columbian Carole Kangas, right, and daughter Karen Mitchell, both of Vancouver, use the wireless connection at the Vancouver Mall Community Library on Tuesday. Budget pressure on the Fort Vancouver Regional Library District could force closure of the branch by next April.

Unless Vancouver mall management relents on strict lease conditions, Fort Vancouver Regional Library District officials feel compelled to shut down the system’s third-most popular branch facility.

That unsavory choice weighed on the minds of library district board members who agreed Tuesday to shave $1.2 million from the 2009 budget, worth about $17.5 million overall.

A final decision on budget cuts must come by the board’s next meeting, Nov. 10 in Ridgefield.

Closing the mall branch, which has operated since 1983 at one site or another in the shopping center, would deliver nearly half the needed cost savings, district officials say.

That’s by far the big ticket among a list of potential savings the board chewed over, with about 30 anxious district employees and mall branch advocates looking on.

Other options: Sunday closures at the main Vancouver Community Library (savings of $242,000); lopping one day each off six branches that operate six days a week ($226,000); cut the district’s Book-by-Mail program and install overdue fines ($250,000); staff cuts beyond a dozen resulting from the mall branch closure ($254,000); and slashing Bookmobile services in Clark, Klickitat and Skamania counties ($148,000).

Despite nearly 192,000 checkouts recorded by patrons this year through Sept. 30, the mall branch could be toast if FVRL can’t rework two key lease requirements with Westfield Vancouver shopping center leaders.

A 10-year lease that expires in 2010 requires that the library stay open during all mall shopping hours, currently 73 hours over seven days each week. Westfield also demands that FVRL make interior renovations worth an estimated $500,000, as part of an upcoming major mall makeover.

Board members urged FVRL Executive Director Bruce Ziegman to “rattle the cage” of mall officials and ratchet up public pressure. But Ziegman and Karen Peterson, board chairwoman, warned that Westfield has long blunted discussion requests.

Without those concessions, “I don’t get how you don’t shut down the mall (branch),” said board member Bill Yee. “That really makes the choice for us. I don’t see how you (avoid it).”

Connie Stankivicz, the mall’s general manager, said late Tuesday that leases are handled by a San Francisco office and would not comment.

Ziegman and others listed reasons the mall branch is targeted. Adjacent branches overlap most of the territory it serves, they said. Records show nearby residents check out 60 percent of their materials from the main Vancouver library, for instance. New libraries due soon in Battle Ground, Cascade Park and downtown Vancouver will further offset the loss, they said.

But library workers and boosters testified the branch is a critical hub that reaches a distinct clientele, one that lacks easy cultural or transportation access to other, less inviting libraries. Newcomers to Clark County, senior citizens, young families and mothers with baby strollers: All would be hurt, advocates said.

“People who come to the mall are a much more diverse ethnic group than I see elsewhere in the city,” said Gail Durance, a branch worker.

Many are first introduced to local library services there, she said.

“There is something very strategic we provide that I don’t think lots of other branches provide,” she said.

The FVRL budget slashing comes after a sharp drop in local revenues that pay for the 13-branch, four-county district.

Fueled by the housing market drop and a dive in new construction value, property tax collections are down sharply, a loss to the district of about $350,000 from prior projections. State forest payments will be nearly $300,000 less than earlier estimated.

Ziegman noted that $37 million in construction money for new libraries approved by voters in September 2006 may not be tapped for operating budget use.

Board members who fear even worse next year asked for an extra $250,000 in savings, pushing the budget gap to about $1.2 million.

Barring a miraculous economic recovery, the picture looks even more bleak for 2010, they agreed.

“This is not the best of times,” Ziegman said.

HOWARD BUCK: 360-735-4515 or howard.buck@columbian.com.