Matt Driscoll: The underappreciated case for keeping the Kobetich Library open

First, the obvious: The Tacoma Public Library’s Northwest Room — home to a beloved and essential collection of Tacoma history — must be saved. Losing it is simply not an option.

Now, the equally important fine print: Any conversation that pits the fate of the indispensable Northwest Room against that of Northeast Tacoma’s small, neighborhood Kobetich branch is simply unfair.

Unfortunately, however, that seems to be precisely the narrative that’s developing in the lead-up to crafting the city’s next biennial budget, which faces an estimated $6.7 million shortfall.

As The News Tribune’s Candice Ruud reported last week, City Manager T.C. Broadnax and the city’s budget office, back in May, asked all city departments to identify 2 to 4 percent in potential cuts.

The amount varied by department. For example, libraries, on the short end of the stick, were asked to identify 4 percent in cuts, while police and fire were asked for 2 percent, and Planning and Environmental Services was asked to identify 3 percent.

For the Tacoma Public Library system, a 4 percent cuts pencils out to $903,318 over two years. And, as it was intended to do, the austerity directive from the city manager — which also came with the appropriate caveat that decisions should be viewed through an “equity lens,” meaning cuts to poorer, underserved neighborhoods should be avoided — led Library Director Susan Odencrantz and her staff to get down to the difficult work of identifying potential financial whittling.

You already know the options that emerged. Odencrantz and her crew say shuttering the Northwest Room would save $621,000 over two years, while closing the Kobetich branch would save $852,000.

To be blunt, both options stink.

Predictably, reaction to the two proposals varied greatly, at least here on Tacoma’s mainland. Cries of outrage and disbelief quickly reached deafening levels over concern for the Northwest Room, while the Kobetich proposal received an audible “meh” from much of the city.

Perhaps intentionally, closing the Northwest Room is viewed as a worst-case scenario. I can’t argue with that. It would be devastating to Tacoma, and not just its history buffs.

But that leaves the humble Kobetich branch, in far-off and often forgotten Northeast Tacoma, as what in comparison?

Easy pickings, perhaps.

And that’s exactly the problem with the decision as presented. While it’s early in the budgeting process, and proposed cuts are a far cry from actual cuts, it’s still worth contemplating the decision that’s being lined up here. Northeast Tacoma’s City Councilman, Robert Thoms, remains confident the Kobetich Library will stay open when the dust settles, telling me he’s “very proud of our city’s libraries and will continue to fight for them.”

The question: Can it be a fair fight, given the perceived options on the table?

Certainly, for most of Tacoma, the Kobetich Library doesn’t hold the same appeal as the Northwest Room. But it has its own important history and is important to the neighborhood it serves.

The Kobetich Library opened in June 1980 on land donated by Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Sokolowski, on the condition that a library would be built on the site. It was funded by a $425,695 surprise gift that the library’s namesake, Mary Kobetich, left to Tacoma’s libraries in her estate after her death in 1974. The money was intended to be used for land, the construction of a new library branch or improvement to an existing library room.

Kobetich, described in News Tribune articles from the time as frugal, quiet and caring, with a love of economics, the stock market and travel, worked as a librarian in and around Tacoma for much of her life, including 37 years at Stadium High School. In her will, she requested that a plaque be placed in remembrance of her Czechoslovakian parents, Jacob and Louise.

In other words, closing the Kobetich Library now would violate the wishes of both the Sokolowskis and the Tacoma woman who paid for it.

More importantly, today the Kobetich Library stands as the only Tacoma library in Northeast Tacoma — a part of the city where residents, rightfully in many cases, feel like they’re often ignored and left to pay city taxes without receiving the same level of services as the rest of us. A long list of neighborhood grievances includes cuts in Pierce Transit bus service and a lack of sidewalks, among other legitimate gripes.

Pat Richmond, 73, has lived in Northeast Tacoma for over 40 years. Much like Mary Kobetich, she’s a former librarian at Stadium High School. While she’s quick to point out that “she doesn’t speak for everyone” in her neighborhood, the concerns she voices over the potential closure of the Kobetich Library are shared by many.

“Northeast Tacoma is out of sight and out of mind to Tacoma officials in many respects,” she says. “My daughter and her family are here, and we have used (the Kobetich Library) all the time.”

Richmond is particularly annoyed by the perception that Northeast Tacomans are all well off and can handle the loss — a view debunked by the 56.9 percent of students at Northeast Tacoma Elementary who qualified for the free and reduced lunch program during the 2014-2015 school year — as well as the suggestion that she and her neighbors can just use Federal Way’s libraries.

“Everybody thinks, ‘Oh, you’ve got all kinds of money,’ but we don’t,” Richmond says. “And if we’re paying taxes to Tacoma, and then saying, ‘Well, just go to Federal way,’ … that’s kind of lame to me.”

She has a point.

This story was originally published July 2, 2016 at 11:56 AM with the headline "Matt Driscoll: The underappreciated case for keeping the Kobetich Library open."