By a near-unanimous vote and with scant discussion, Islanders at the Vashon-Maury Island Community Council (VMICC) meeting Monday night urged the King County Library System to keep the Vashon library branch in the town core.

The “urgent motion,” undertaken quickly due to concern that county library officials might make a decision soon on a new location for the branch, was brought forward by council board member Bill Tobin.

It follows on the heels of an Island-wide survey about the location; of the 2,269 who responded, nearly 80 percent said they wanted to see the library remain in the town core, and nearly 70 percent wanted to see it remain at Ober Park.

Tobin’s resolution noted the “overwhelming ... community preference” identified in the survey and said that as a result “the VMICC hereby strongly urges KCLS to select a library site somewhere in the town core.”

Of the 85 or so Islanders there, nearly all voted for the resolution. None voted against it.

After the vote, Martin Koenig, who has played an active role in the effort to keep the library in town, said he was struck by the strong show of support.

“It’s impressive whenever you get 85 people out on an issue,” he said.

He said he doesn’t know if the resolution will have much impact on KCLS head Bill Ptacek, who has shown a preference for moving the branch to the K2 site a mile outside of town, but added that it should.

“I think it’s very important that this resolution got passed, because it’s basically instructing our representatives to ... follow their constituents,” Koenig said. “My hope is that this will be the final test.”

Contact Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber Editor Leslie Brown at editor@vashonbeachcomber.com or 1-206-463-9195.

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