Kaysville to vote on library, pool

KAYSVILLE — Two big money decisions await Kaysville residents in the voting booth this year — whether to build a new library and whether to put in an outdoor swimming pool.

Permission to seek general obligation bonds for $4.35 million to underwrite a new library will be before voters. They will also be asked if the city should bond for $3.5 million for an outdoor swimming pool complex.

If bonding is approved, the resulting property tax increases for each bond would be $28.91 per $100,000 assessed valuation for the library and $23.34 per $100,000 valuation for the swimming pool.

Both bonds would be paid off in 15 years.

If the library bond doesn't pass, residents will continue to use the existing library, the first in the county and built in 1922 — 24 years before the county established its library system.

If the pool bond fails, Kaysville residents will have to continue to use other area municipal or private pools. The proposed pool would be in Barnes Park, adjacent to existing recreation facilities. It would have a capacity of 273,000 gallons with 25-yard lanes, a 150-foot tube slide and other water park features.

Some residents argue the city should give up its library and join the county system; others want to keep an independent city library that would be much larger than a branch library the county might build in the city.

The decision is further complicated by an endowment that is restricted and might be lost if the city gave up its library to join the county system. The endowment, a result of land donated to the library by Alan and Kay Blood that was sold and the funds invested, brings in between $20,000 and $40,000 annually, depending on stock market conditions. In recent years, the income has been in the lower range, according to Bruce Allen, chairman of the library board.

"We never touch the principal, just the interest," Allen said. "Our library is so small now that if we buy a book, we have to literally take one off the shelves to put the new one in. As a result, we've saved up over $160,000 in endowment funds while waiting for a larger facility."

Under terms of the endowment, the money can be used only for books and other hands-on library items, not buildings or maintenance costs.

Allen, who has studied the pros and cons of building new and joining the system, said the minuses of going with the county far outweigh the pluses.

"If people understand the total situation here, it would be hard for them not to vote for the bond," he said.