County told grant will complete library

Mayor Ramon Hayes pitched a $500,000 proposal for Skagit County economic development funds for a new library in La Conner as a catalyst that will bring new businesses that will revitalize Morris Street. In his five minute presentation Monday, Hayes said the library will “foster an environment for advancement, providing workforce education, tech and vocational workshops, meeting space for enhanced collaboration.”

Hayes told the County Commissioners their grant would complete funding, and that without it the project “will lose the state and tribal money and . . . will be dead.”

He went through the list of funding sources totaling $3.24 million, with private donations of $1.29 million the single largest contribution, telling them “that’s $274 for every man, woman and child in the district.

He told them that “Plan B . . . is you.”

Some 12 proposals, ranging from the Port of Anacortes to the Mount Vernon library, are vying for $2.5 million.

An advisory panel will be making recommendations to the County Commissioners. They will choose the projects to fund and the dollar amounts. Award announcements are expected in mid-July.