Fayetteville library begins millage push with Koenig at helm

FAYETTEVILLE -- The campaign asking Fayetteville voters to increase property taxes for a Fayetteville Public Library expansion moved forward another step Monday with the announcement Jeff Koenig will help lead the effort.

Koenig is the retired CEO of Upchurch Electrical Supply and pushed for other recent public projects, including 2010's millage increase for Fayetteville High School's expansion and 2013's sales tax dedication to the regional park, Walton Arts Center and Fayetteville Town Center.

Koenig will lead a civic committee that will essentially run the campaign. He told the library board he was prepared for an intense phone and social media campaign in late summer aiming to convince voters to increase millage by up to 2.7 mills to cover the library's first expansion in more than a decade. The board hopes to have the proposal on the ballot Aug. 9.

"I believe we are in the crux of seeing this library's growth just accelerate," board member Maylon Rice said Monday. "We need to make sure we're poised for the future, and this is one way to do that."

The 2.7-mill increase would bolster the current 1-mill levy for the library. It would cost property owners an additional $54 for every $100,000 of property while raising almost $4 million each year for the library.

Fayetteville property owners also pay about $1,100 for every $100,000 of property in other taxes, mostly going to the School District.

Library officials for years have said the facility needs more space and more revenue to pay for it in order to keep up with increasing costs and growing expectations from its people.

The board has cut several hundred thousand dollars for new material, maintenance of the building and grounds and other costs in the past two years and increased fees to keep afloat. Attendance at author events, language classes and other programs, meanwhile, crossed 80,000 for the first time last year, up 30,000 from 2010, according to a report presented to the board Monday.

So the millage request to voters will actually have two pieces, Koenig said: up to 1.2 temporary mills to cover construction bonds, and another 1.5 mills to cover expanded operations and other needs. Library director David Johnson said the millages won't be any higher than those numbers, and they'll be lowered slightly if possible.

The exact nature of the expansion isn't decided yet because the library's purchase of the adjacent City Hospital land from Washington Regional Medical Center is held up in court. Descendants of the couple who first gave the land to the city decades ago are challenging the medical center's ownership in the Arkansas Court of Appeals and state Supreme Court.

But the library is drawing up plans to expand even without the new land. The expansion could range from 28,000 to 62,000 more square feet and cost between $20 million and $40 million depending on how the case ends, according to an early outline presented last month.

"Expansion is something that's going to happen," Johnson said. "It's just what will it look like."

Koenig's committee comes in because the library can't spend public dollars on an election. Public campaigns typically cost up to $15,000, Koenig said.

Kim Agee will be the only board member on the committee. Koenig said its other members haven't been confirmed yet.

Now those involved in the effort must gather 100 signatures to get each of the two millage requests to City Council, which would then vote on whether to send it to a public vote. The board hopes to reach that step by May or June, giving at least two months to run the formal campaign.

NW News on 04/19/2016