Library in Kelso for $1 a year?

Sparrow Center, middle, and her unicorn puppet flee the Blue Witch as Kristine Brownlow, 6, and the Red King stay clear during the spontaneous puppet show at the Longview Public Library on Thursday. Out of sight, Owen Johnson played the Blue Witch. Photo by Bill Wagner / The Daily News.

Friday, January 4, 2008 7:46 AM PST

By Amy M.E. Fischer / The Daily News

Kelso is getting a new public library for the bargain price of $1 a year, elated city officials announced Thursday.

A pair of developers, one of them a lifelong Kelso resident, has offered to build a library as part of a large retail and residential center on 8 acres along the Coweeman River and Grade Street near 13th Avenue.

Tim Sparks of Kelso said he and his partner, Michael Waddington of Washougal, Wash., want to lease the 15,000-square-foot library space to the city for $1 a year.

"We tried to get him down to 75 cents, but he wouldn't budge," joked Kelso Community Development Director Mike Kerins during a meeting Thursday at City Hall with Sparks, Library Director Geraldine Veenstra and City Manager Paul Brachvogel.

Sparks, 51, graduated from Kelso High School in 1974 and has been a volunteer teacher at Cornerstone Community Christian School for five years. Before he retired, he was a Realtor and overseas developer, working on projects in South Korea, he said.

Sparks has used Kelso's library since he was a little kid. When he was confined to a wheelchair for a time as an adult, he found he no longer could visit the library with his children because the building didn't meet handicapped-access requirements. Sparks said he thinks the community should have a library everyone is able to use.

"It's just something we as a company want to give back to the community," said Sparks, whose company is Tichael Properties, LLC. "I'm just a local boy and want to do something here."

The city has been long overdue for a new library --- and if Sparks' predictions are correct, the city will have one by Thanksgiving or Christmas. The current building at Fourth Avenue and Academy Street was built in the 1950s to house the PUD, and it became the city library in 1959. But it doesn't have a parking lot, and it lacks an elevator, making the two-story building tough to access for people in wheelchairs. Having two levels also requires employees to staff both floors.

City officials have been searching for a suitable site for years. The most recent site the city settled upon, the old Safeway grocery store next to City Hall, was sold in summer 2006 to a developer who renovated it into a state office building.

Throughout the search, no one had an answer for how the chronically cash-strapped city of 12,000 residents would pay for a new library. With roughly a third of the population living at or below poverty level, it seemed unlikely to the City Council that voters would approve a bond issue that would increase their property taxes to pay for a new library. The council had offered up naming rights to whatever donor would fund a library, but no donor materialized.

And so, when Sparks pitched his idea to Brachvogel last fall, "I couldn't believe it," the city manager said.

"People talk about libraries as a luxury ... but it's not a luxury," Brachvogel said. "It's a necessity. How do you value literacy?"

Tichael Properties bought the undeveloped, 8-acre parcel last month from Billy Wein, Sparks said. Many years ago, before Interstate 5 was built, the Night Hawk Tavern stood in the vicinity, he said.

The proposed development, called "MacTavish Square," is slated to be constructed in five phases over five years, with a projected total value of $70 million, Sparks said.

Before Tichael Properties can break ground on the project, officials must annex the 8 acres into city limits. Then the Planning Commission and City Council must approve a comprehensive plan land-use designation and a rezone.

After that, the developers may begin the city's plan review process, Kerins said.

In addition to a library and 3,000-square-foot community room, the ground floor will have retail space for a coffee shop, bakery, restaurants and a day care center. Four floors of condominiums --- 258 units in all --- will be built above the library and shops. The three-bedroom, two-bath condominiums will range in price from $189,000 to $229,000, Sparks said. Parking garages for condominium residents will be underground.

Portland architect Bart Jankins, who trained under Frank Lloyd Wright, will design the library in a Northwest Craftsman style, Sparks said. That would entail elements such as an open-beam gabled entry and a natural stone facade, Kerins said.

A 100-foot "nature zone" will remain untouched along the river's edge across the length of the development.

"I'm considering it an outdoor classroom," said Veenstra,

Because the city won't shoulder the costs of library construction, citizens will get "cutting edge" library services, Brachvogel said. Tichael Properties is relying on Veenstra to provide a list of features necessary for a good library.

"We're going to design the best library on the I-5 corridor in that space," Veenstra said. "We are the county seat, and this will be the type of library that a county seat ought to have. ... It's been a long time coming. This is good for Kelso."