Citizens for a Library in West Boise,
Together our emails added over 40 pages to the meeting agenda for the Library Board of Trustees Meeting Wednesday, September 10th!  I was so happy when someone shared the link with me and I saw the meeting agenda, including all our messages:
That’s a lot of pages for all the packets that were printed!
We’re all saying very similar things, in different ways, and I think it’s sending a powerful message.
I counted 9 of us in attendance at the meeting, specifically there to support a library in West Boise, not including children.  The meeting was at the Library! at Hillcrest, Butte Room, 5246 W. Overland Rd., Boise, ID 83705
This is the link to watch the meeting online: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJo0NAsCybsN0DtzuAl3LGA

Here are my notes from the meeting:

  • The board voted to take no action.  Not endorse or reject the proposed facilities plan.
  • Near the beginning of the meeting the Board President, Ron Pisaneschi, announced the tremendous amount of communication that was received in support of a library in West Boise.  He said that that feedback would come into the discussion later.  It took quite a while before there was further mention of that feedback however.
  • Most of the conversation was focused on the estimated cost of (a) a new leased space building or (b) a new facility.
  • I feel like the numbers were so high that there’s a sense of “oh crap, how can we make any viable plan”?
  • The estimates are about 25 million for a larger leased space option and a bit over 30 million for a new facility.
  • Nikki Pantera, Board Vice President, at 1:09 PM, recognized there was so much feedback from West Boise that she feels it needs to be explicitly talked about in the plan.
  • They want to get feedback from City Council next month (joint meeting with City Council, October 14 2025, Boise City Hall in Council Chambers at 3:30pm) before they make a decision about the plan.
  • They want the numbers to be conservatively high, so as to not come in too low and “trick” voters when doing a possible levy.  They want to comply with the code that resulted from prop 1 in 2019, which says that voters have to approve a library project that totals 25 million or more.
  • Jessica (Director Dorr) said it’s not possible to acquire land before / separately from building on it.
    • I wonder if that’s really true.  I think her logic is 2019 proposition 1 resulted in City code that says voters have to approve a library that costs more than 25 million.  You can’t buy *part* of the package separately because it all has to be approved by voters first.
    • The city owns little pieces of land here and there.  I don’t think the eventual purpose of these parcels is all known.
  • Ron Pisaneschi, Board President, wondered if land could be acquired in a sort of abstract sense.  The city recognizes this as a great spot for something in the future.  TBD on exactly how it will be used.
  • There was discussion also about — could we sell this to voters better if we made the buildings multi-use?  For example fire station + library.  Or low income housing on top of a library.
    • Boise has been doing everything in its power to encourage development of low income housing as well as building it themselves (yes, Boise is a landlord).
  • The estimates also are for 30k square foot spaces.  That might be more than is needed honestly.  Or we start with a building Bown Crossing size (16k square feet), with expansion a possibility in 20 more years.  That could lower the cost too.
I would like to dive into the numbers driving these estimates, and compare them to the costs for Bown Crossing, and compare each aspect of the cost: actual in 2017 (at Bown Crossing) vs 2025 projected.  Bown Crossing was 8.65 million, total (I believe not counting land which was purchased in 2001).  This includes 1 million that was contributed privately too.
They estimate $5 million in soft cost for a building.  Largely for the design.  Could we use Bown Crossing’s design and save 5 million on design??  (Though how can you know until you have a plot of land…)
They were not thinking of any ways to lower the cost.  They are projecting the highest cost possible (if you do things, in my view — trying to come up with the highest possible cost).
The estimates shared in the meeting were for 30,000 square feet libraries.  Cole & UStick and Bown Crossing are about half that size.  (Bown is reportedly 15,999 square feet).  The reason for this size is that Group4 is advising that with Boise’s size, you should be building libraries that size.  However, because cost is such a worry, (rightfully so, right?) could we come up with a design that’s in the 15,000 SF area that allows for possible future expansion?
Wording from the City Ordinance that was adopted in response to the ballot initiative (which passed) was shared in the meeting.  This is weighing heavily in the planning process.  A question I have — the ordinance says “25 million, library project”.  Does that refer to a single facility?  I believe it does refer to a single library, not a combination of branches.  Collectively the proposed library branches would exceed 25 million, but individually I honestly think they could be under that number.
I’d love to hear your ideas on the next steps.  I think that we need to contact City Council, possibly Mayor McLean also, prior to October, and I think we should bring solutions to them to help them work with the library to develop a viable, realistic plan.
If you have experience projecting costs / analyzing costs on large projects, or know someone who does, who might want to look into the cost today and Bown Crossing’s cost from 2017, let me know.
Something else interesting we learned: in this meeting statistics on usage were reviewed.  One interesting point is the number of active card holders by library branch.  We found it interesting that your home library is not based on where you live, but where you signed up for a library card.  If you sign up for a library card not at a Boise library (say you signed up for a Boise Library Card in Meridian, Eagle, or Garden City), it seems you get assigned the Boise main library as your home library.  None of those I surveyed in support of a library in West Boise show as having the Cole & UStick library as their home library…  It seems the number of West Boise users who should have Cole & UStick as their home library is underrepresented in the data.
(If you still want to send a message to the Library Board of Trustees, their email address is bplboardtrustee@cityofboise.org.)