The days appear numbered for a historic Pierce County library. It’s OK to be sad | Opinion

The writing is on the wall for Lakewood’s old library. There are tarps covering the leaky roof. It needs millions of dollars in repairs. It’s been closed since June when the 60-year-old building’s deteriorating condition became too much to ignore.

Now a community advisory committee tasked with helping to decide the structure’s future has made its recommendation known: Abandon it. Start fresh.

If the Pierce County Library’s Board of Trustees agrees with the assessment — and every indication is it will, sometime early this year — that will be that.

The old Flora Tenzler Memorial Library on Wildaire Road will be a thing of the past, an item of nostalgia for long-time Lakewood residents, like Fourth of July fireworks shows at Villa Plaza, the brick-and-mortar Tijuana Taco or their first round of golf at Oakbrook.

For many, it will be difficult — the way change so often is. And that’s OK. There’s no stopping progress, but that doesn’t make the slow transformation of the places we call home any easier.

“The library is one of those bits of accessible history,” said Steve Dunkelberger, a founding member of the Lakewood Historical Society who co-authored two books on the city’s history. “Anyone who’s second- or third-generation Lakewood, their grandparents took them here, their parents took them here.”

To understand locals’ hometown affinity for the old Lakewood library building — which dates back to 1963 and is undoubtedly humble by today’s standards — you have to appreciate the city’s origins and the role the library played along the way. While Lakewood didn’t officially become a city until 1996, for decades the Tenzler library served as a gathering place for civic movers and shakers, not to mention local Clover Park School District kids with book reports to write. In fact, the building itself is a testament to residents’ pride and independent spirit. It was built and renovated through the local philanthropic donations of the Tenzler Foundation and operated for the first 30 years of its existence through grassroots fundraising efforts. It was donated to the Pierce County Library System in the early 1990s, but that doesn’t erase the history: When Lakewood needed a library, residents built one themselves.

Today, as The News Tribune has reported, that’s all the distant past. An interim library site was announced in late October, though it has yet to open, while the old building awaits word of its fate. According to spokesperson Mary Getchell, the system’s board of trustees is expected to make a final decision on how to proceed in the next “couple of months.”

In mid-November, the community advisory committee helping to lead the decision-making process made its feelings crystal clear.

Unanimously, committee members would prefer to see a new library built in the same location.

If that’s not possible, they support finding a different location for a new Lakewood library — one that’s centrally located, accessible by foot and public transportation, and large enough to accommodate the community’s needs, including parking. According to information available on the Pierce County Library System’s website, if a new location is chosen, the current site will probably be sold.

The construction of a new library, which would likely cost in excess of $20 million, would almost certainly require a bond measure to be put before voters, Getchell said.

“The Board of Trustees is continuing to have that conversation, and we’re continuing to talk with the city of Lakewood about next steps. A decision hasn’t been made, but the discussion is there, because of the preference recommendation from the advisory committee,” Getchell told The News Tribune of whether there’s a new library in Lakewood’s future.

“Again, no decision has been made, but all conversation by the board has been in agreement with the recommendation, which would ultimately result in the removal of the current location.”

According to Dunkelberger, that reality — even if it’s a long time coming — will be a tough pill for some to swallow. He realizes the old building is in sad shape and that change is inevitable, but like many, he wishes the story of the Lakewood library had a different ending.

What if the library had been better cared for over the years? What if its future had been decided before it started to crumble?

What if we constructed and invested in important buildings like they were meant to last?

Getchell told The News Tribune that if a new library is built, the things that made the old library special can be replicated. After all, a library isn’t really about the building itself, it’s about the people who use it, the services it provides and the sense of community it creates, she said.

The dilemma now for Lakewood:

How much do the memories really matter, and how do you hold onto them when the physical reminders are gone?

“I think most people, they just want the (library) amenities. But the vocal people want to keep the building. I don’t know how many of those people are actually using the library, but they’re using the memory of the library, that’s for sure,” Dunkelberger said.

“The world is changing so fast, and people want to at least slow it down.”