About four years ago, King County voters approved a bond levy that included a 10,000-square-foot library for Vashon. Since that time there have been a few meetings to talk about how this might be accomplished. In the Dec. 31 issue, The Beachcomber printed a story about the likelihood of the Vashon Library moving to the K2 development.

In response to this, many Islanders contacted Dow Constantine, our King County Council representative, to express concern that the library was about to be moved out of the town core.

Dow responded very quickly, bringing the concerned parties to the table to discuss the history of the public involvement on this issue and to find out how the Vashon public can have meaningful input on the library siting decision. Two of us went from the Vashon-Maury Island Community Council board; David Hackett represented the Vashon Park District (the library’s landlord); the King County Library System (KCLS) sent four people, and the K2 developers were also there.

Despite my plea that KCLS make a good faith effort to find out what the Vashon community wants in this instance, including an offer by VMICC to conduct an all-Island poll, the best we came away with was a plan by KCLS to hold an informational meeting to inform the Vashon community of its latest plans at K2.

Negotiations between KCLS and Vashon parks have broken down, and KCLS seems happy with its opportunity to move the library to a location with plenty of parking and good roadway visibility.

Dow Constantine’s support, amazing responsiveness and firmness made the meeting (which lasted an hour and a half) very useful, and we were able to clearly understand the point of view of all the parties. Dow’s help in bringing us all together is a bright spot in an otherwise difficult situation.

— Jean Bosch

President, Vashon-Maury Island Community Council