Library District promotes bond issue for new facilities

Friday, Jan. 17, 2003 | 11:05 a.m.

The Las Vegas-Clark County Library District board will ask voters in June to raise their property taxes by about $9 per $100,000 valuation to fund construction of four new branches.

Officials say that price includes books, staffing and all the trimmings, unlike the 1991 bond issue that built libraries some critics called Taj Mahals with insufficient numbers of books and materials.

The library board voted unanimously Thursday to schedule public hearings to seek voter approval for a $51.6 million bond that also will improve existing branches.

The hearings will be held before the Clark County Commission on Feb. 4 and the Las Vegas City Council Feb. 5, then will be reviewed by the Debt Management Commission. If approved, the question will be on the June 3 general election ballot.

A similar proposal for the November 2002 ballot failed before the debt management board when five of 11 members did not show up to vote on the measure.

The new proposal would raise property taxes by $8.82 for a $100,000 home.

"That's less than the cost of the new Harry Potter book at Costco," said Library District Executive Director Dan Walters. "It reflects a turn-key cost for a real, fully stocked and staffed library.

"These four buildings are modeled after the most cost-effective branches, with efficient construction. They are not modeled on the type of building the district had problems with in the past with cost overruns."

The new branches, he said, would have sufficient materials, be open seven days a week and have computers and other services -- all covered by the bond money.

If the bond is approved, new branches would be built in Mesquite to replace the existing library and on vacant land at Windmill Road and Rainbow Boulevard, at Centennial Parkway and Buffalo Drive and at Lamb Boulevard between Stewart Avenue and Bonanza Road.