Blaine Library supporters continue work on new library

Friends of Blaine Library (FOBL) is continuing to raise funds for the future Blaine Library while waiting for Whatcom County Library System (WCLS) to give word on what the path forward will look like.
The plan for a new Blaine Library building hinges upon what will happen to the future Birch Bay Vogt Community Library. Birch Bay voters didn’t meet a supermajority threshold to establish a taxing district for the future Birch Bay library during elections last November and February. Now, the WCLS is looking at its options for the library that’s estimated to cost $6.5 million on waterfront Birch Bay Drive property. The WCLS board of directors is expected to have more in-depth conversations on the Birch Bay library in June, when the WCLS reviews the maintenance and funding needs for its 11 buildings.
Until then, Blaine Library supporters won’t know how the WCLS plans to assist community supporters in getting a new Blaine Library.
FOBL vice president Pat Kingshott expects some fundraising guidance from WCLS during their April meeting, but not to have an indication on WCLS’s direction for Blaine until this summer. The group has been fundraising through the pandemic with book sales, both on the WCLS website and during large events such as the Fourth of July and Christmas tree lighting. The group received a funding boost in December, when the Ronald Cyr Estate donated $19,000 to the future Blaine Library. Cyr visited the Blaine library almost every day. In 2020, his estate donated $10,000 to the library, according to WCLS.
“Other than that, we’re more or less waiting to see what the move is from Whatcom County Library System and what the move is in Birch Bay,” Kingshott said. “We’re kind of in a holding pattern.”
WCLS executive director Christine Perkins said the library system is in the preliminary stages of helping the Blaine community find funding sources for a new library.
“We’re still aware of the need for more space in the Blaine community,” Perkins said. “We have some great schematic designs and would like to reconnect with the community and find ways to fund it.”
FOBL spent $50,000 of fundraising and donation money to hire an architect to design a new library in 2019, following the footsteps of the Birch Bay supporters who started gaining momentum for their library a few years before. The WCLS started planning public input meetings for the Blaine project and considered combining the Blaine and Birch Bay libraries in one taxing district in fall 2019. The library’s design team, King Architecture and Johnston Architects, revealed a final design in concept in February 2020: A 8,620-square-foot library that’s almost twice the size of the current library and has a community gathering space.
The meetings were put on hold as the pandemic uprooted everyday life in March 2020, and WCLS decided not to pursue a single taxing district between the Blaine and Birch Bay libraries later that year.
FOBL president Carroll Solomon said the future library will remain the group’s long-term goal but their biggest priority for 2022 is supporting the library however it needs, from donating pizzas for team night to buying new chairs for the meeting room.
“Our future goal is coming up with a new building, whatever shape that turns out to be,” Solomon said.
FOBL meets at 6:30 p.m. on the third Wednesday of each month at the library and remotely. Meetings are open to the public. For more information, visit wcls.org.