The Casper Journal :: Casper's Community Newspaper

The Natrona County Public Library Board of Trustees has chosen a new downtown site for a proposed 95,000-square-foot building in the Old Yellowstone District.

A preliminary design and cost estimate will be ready in the next 2-3 weeks.

The next step to bring a new, larger library to the community is winning approval to put a funding proposal for a specific purpose capital facilities' tax on the November ballot.

Wyoming statutes require approval from four of the county's six municipalities and the Natrona County Commission to get the tax measure before the voters.

The library's board of trustees and Director Bill Nelson will be meeting with the Casper City Council and the town councils in Bar Nunn, Edgerton, Evansville, Midwest and Mills in June and July to get their approval for the sixth cent of sales tax.

With approval from two-thirds of the municipal governments and final approval by the County Commission, ballot language with a specific cost amount will be ready by Aug. 25.

If approved by a popular vote in excess of 50 percent of the voters who cast a vote in November, the extra penny of tax would be collected only as long as needed to raise the actual cost of the project.

With a penny of sales tax currently yielding about $19.9 million annually, Nelson estimates the tax could end after about 18 months. By law, the tax stops at the end of the quarter in which the amount approved by the voters is reached.

It is illegal to keep the tax going after that point.

The library is hosting public meetings to hear what the community wants in its new library, Nelson said.

So far, the board has found strong support for a concept that will include more room for children and youth programs, Internet and computer terminals, public programming space and the library's stock of reading, viewing and listening materials.

The 345,000 visitors to the library this year will have checked out 595,000 items during the 3,044 hours the library was open.

"Do the math," Nelson said. "That's 104 people an hour through the doors," in a building one-third the size of what could become the county's library.

The new location also would increase parking from 65 to 200 spaces, up the number of computer terminals from 38 to 80 and provide room for more than twice the amount of materials.

"We're preparing the library to serve for the next 100 years," Nelson said.

One of the features the new, larger library will include is more space for community meetings and programming. Nelson said the discussion on meeting rooms really hasn't focused on the real use of the public space.

"They're really public places where discussions are encouraged. Public discourse revitalized the library," he said, with 253 children's programs like Story Time, 69 adult programs and 120 community programs like meet-the-author events and legislative forums.

The new library will have two public program rooms, with seating for up to 250 in the larger room. There also will be dedicated space for youth programs and activities, several small study rooms and a children's area four times the size of the current space.

Nelson said the future use for the current library is still to be determined, although the director said he's already had "three or four" inquiries from individuals interested in putting the former library to another use. He's confident the building will not remain vacant for long in Casper's booming economy.

"If the ballot passes, sometime next year we'll look at future uses," he said. "We'll be here for a couple of years while the new building is built."

Information about the new library project is available on the Natrona County Public Library Web site www.natronacountylibrary.org or from Citizens for a New Library at NewLibrary2008@aol.com.

Upcoming public information meetings

June 12: New library information session, 7 p.m., Natrona County Public Library, Crawford Room

June 17: Casper Area Chamber of Commerce, 500 N. Center, 4 p.m.

July 2: Public information session, 7 p.m., Natrona County Public Library, Crawford Room

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