At the Pierce County Library System’s Board of Trustees’ Wednesday, April 10, 3:30 p.m., regular meeting, the Board will hear about progress to build the interim Lakewood Pierce County Library, discuss plans to take down the current Lakewood Pierce County Library building, talk about long-term planning for Lakewood libraries, review policies, and address additional business.
The meeting will be held in person at the Pierce County Library Administrative Center at 3005 112th St. E., Tacoma. Optional virtual attendance is available via mypcls.org/about-us/board-of-trustees/.
The Board of Trustees will discuss plans to remove the current Lakewood Library building at Wildaire Road SW. Following recommendations from the Lakewood Libraries Building Community Advisory Committee in November 2022, which recommended keeping the library at the same location and building a new facility on the current location, work has been underway to remove the current building. At the Board meeting, the Board will review a purchase order for a contractor to demolish the building in the coming months.
At the same time, the Library System is making progress to build the interim Lakewood Library at Gravelly Lake Dr. S.W. and Alfaretta St. S.W., a few blocks north of the current Lakewood Library. At the Board meeting, Library administrators will give an update on the site preparation and installation of the interim library.
Library administrators will update the Board on plans for two study sessions focused on long-term planning for Lakewood and Tillicum Pierce County Libraries. The first session is scheduled for Saturday, April 20, 1:30-3:30 p.m. at the Library’s Administrative Center and will focus on the downtown Lakewood Library.
As part of the Board’s ongoing development, Library administrators will introduce trustees to a webinar to view at their convenience. The webinar is a presentation from the Washington State Library and EveryLibrary about banned books and the freedom to read. The webinar gives an overview about book bans in Washington state and support for libraries to ensure the public’s access to information and books.
Also at the meeting, the Board will review and is expected to approve updates to the donation and sponsorships policy and review updates to the naming policy.
For more information: https://mypcls.org/about-us/board-of-trustees/.
I’m a simple man, but why didn’t Lakewood level the old building and haul the scraps away, that would had been a two week job, then start building the new one in it’s place? So what is to become of the interim library when the new one is built?
Seems to me, we are wasting money.
As long as government can borrow money, government will waste money.
I’ve been wondering this also. The cost of building an interim facility, and the length of time it has already been since the former building was closed, just doesn’t seem like efficient expense of time or money.