Surprise offering will allow Enumclaw library to shift to six-day schedule

Published 4:16 pm Thursday, April 30, 2009

By Kevin Hanson, The Courier-Herald

The Enumclaw Public Library will be returning to a six-day schedule, thanks to the generosity of a Seattle-based charitable organization.

Out of the blue, the Satterberg Foundation has stepped forward, offering the $20,000 necessary to keep the public library open every Sunday of 2004.

Library director Bob Baer has been hesitant to say too much until the deal is absolutely final, but he's been working with staff on scheduling. A Satterberg representative confirmed last week the money is on the way.

The Satterberg Foundation originated in 1990 by Virginia Satterberg Helfell, named to honor Elmer and Ruth Satterberg, longtime residents of the Pacific Northwest. The foundation is administered by a seven-person board of trustees, and each trustee is a member of the Satterberg family.

One of those family members, Jonathan David Lazarus, spent about five months working in Enumclaw in early 2003. Speaking from his home in Sunnyvale, Calif., Lazarus said he frequently visited the Enumclaw library and noticed it was closed Sundays. The library near his home, Lazarus said, gets busy about noon on Sunday with student visitors. "They're finding a place to be quiet, away from their family and TV and other distractions that tend to take them away from good study time," he said.

Lazarus added he and his wife have owned a home on Roosevelt Avenue since 1980 and, in a couple of years, plan on retiring to Enumclaw.

Lazarus contacted Baer and suggested the city apply for a Satterberg grant. The only stipulation was the money is used to keep the library open on Sundays.

The library had operated on a six-day scheduled – closed only on Sundays – through the end of 2002. Tight finances, however, caused the Enumclaw City Council to slash the library's hours effective Jan. 1, 2003. Daily hours of operation were reduced and the library is closed both Friday and Sunday. The hope has existed that the library could someday return to a six-day schedule, but that wasn't going to happen in 2004.

Though nothing is yet final, it appears the library doors will be open Sundays beginning XXXXX.

Kevin Hanson can be reached at khanson@cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/courierherald