New Ferndale Library

About thirty community members attended an open forum on April 4 at Tillicum House.

Questions, ideas and concens were discussed about the future use of the old Boys and Girls Club facility in Pioneer Park, as a possible site for the Ferndale Library.  Organizers asked the group to pose as many questions as they could think of. A number of the questions were then addressed by Mayor Jensen, library and community foundation representatives, and technical experts volunteering time to the project.

A number of excellent questions remain to be answered, which will help shape the project as plans are further developed.

After lunch, David King, a principal of Stewart-King Architects of Bellingham, facilitated discussions building on the morning questions, on ways to think about the adaptive re-use of the old Boys and Girls Club.

King addressed benefits of renovating an existing building, as well as challenges ahead.  The group discussed questions raised earlier on topics such as fire damage, flood plain elevations, neighborhood relationships and retaining existing play fields in the area.

There was discussion on long range master planning for future expansion and community amenties such as for archives to preserve historical documents, special collections and multi-media resources.

King challenged attendees to think creatively about what could be done with the old Boys and Girls Club.

Click on any image to enlarge

He showed photos of the remarkable transformation of the Blaine Library, from that of an unattractive and shop-worn city maintenance garage into a warm and inviting public space.

The library may vacate its current location which it has outgrown, during 2010 if plans for the Ferndale Police Department to move into the facility are realized. The Project has been exploring a variety of site alternatives to support new construction of a larger facility to meet current and future demand over the past year.

The possibility of both the police department and the library each renovating existing facilities to support the essential expansion of both, was first proposed in January 2009 by Ferndale Mayor Gary Jensen, who suggested the use of the old Boys and Girls Club as possibly suitable for the library.

A key goal for Jensen has been to conserve precious public resources in a down economic climate, while at the same time immediately addressing essential needs to expand important community services.  A good way to do this is to employ sustainable building practices, through adaptive reuse of existing structures, including recycling materials and creative renovation, rather than financing new construction.

The City of Ferndale recently adopted an innovative check-list to address building standards, called EAGLE.  Designed to enhance and build upon green building standards such as LEEDS, EAGLE stands for Energy Efficient Design, Advanced Technologies, Greater Good, Low Impact, and Economic Development.  The checklists embodied by EAGLE, which have begun to attract national interest, create a set of indicators to ensure the best fit of commercial and public construction to local community needs and interest consistent with long range comprehensive plans.

The older building in question is 15,000 square feet, compared to the current library facility's 9,000 square feet.  This would afford the Ferndale Library an opportunity to significantly expand by 6,000 square feet, while at the same time avoiding full costs of new construction.  The site location is adjacent to two other facilities very popular with library patrons, both young and old:  A new Boys and Girls Club currently under construction, and the Ferndale Senior Center.

The City of Ferndale funded a long range needs assessments for the Ferndale Library in late 2006.  The assessment calls for an eventual facility build-out of up to 35,000 square feet over the coming decades.  Thus, an ability to master plan at this site, will create conditions to build affordably in a "modular" way, adding additional capacity and community amenities when future demands and funding opportunities arise.  In this way, the City of Ferndale will truely be able to construct a "community living room"; a library for the 21st Century, that will evolve and grow over time.

In addition to the local youth and senior services, as well as proximity to excellent playing fields for all ages, a network of trails designed feed off the Ferndale Riverwalk promise many patrons a pleasant stroll to the library for many years to come.

The adjacent map, courtesy of Pacific Surveying and Engineering shows an overview of the Pioneer Park site in the context of the trail system, bus lines, and its general proximity to downtown Ferndale, just several blocks away.

On Monday April 20, the Council adopted a resolution, which if approved by the library system's board of trustees, would enable the New Ferndale Library Project to begin plans for a permanent facility at Pioneer Park.