EVERETT— In South Everett’s Mariner neighborhood, located at the northeast corner of 4th Ave West and 128th Street Southwest, an excavation crew are currently hard at work demolishing an old Patty’s Eggnest, who’s owners sold the restaurant to Sno-Isle Libraries in 2024. In its stead will be a new permanent library built from nearly a decade of gauging community interests while offering a much-needed third place for the residents of South Everett.
Right across the street, in a shopping complex connected to a Safeway, a Sno-Isle “demo” library opened in 2017. These demonstration libraries are Sno-Isle pilot programs, temporary libraries typically leasing out spaces in communities that don’t have a permanent library facility yet. It serves as a steppingstone, the library says, to showcase everything a public library system has to offer its community.
When the new Mariner Library opens — in the next 10 years or so, according to Senator Marko Liias who is spearheading the state funding efforts — it will be Sno-Isle Libraries first ever newly constructed library, from the ground up, based upon the success of a demonstration library model, and solely tailored to the needs of the community members who will be using it.
Though Sno-Isle’s Camano Island location was the first library to be based on a successful demo library, it was an acquired, existing, building. The newly constructed Sno-Isle Library in Lake Stevens (which opened last year) is an example of a facility built from scratch, but it was not based on a demonstration library’s success.
Senator Liias joined Sno-Isle Libraries Executive Director Eric Howard, and Sno-Isle staff, on Tuesday, November 25, to tour the future site, while Arlington-based general contractor Skycorp LTD were busy at work tearing down the old diner and carefully sorting through its materials for recycling. Skycrop estimates that by the end of the demolition process they’ll have recycled 90-95% of the materials with the wood being used for fuel, and metals being repurposed for other uses.
It’s a longer demolition process than typical, Rodman “R.D.” Burley, Assistant Director of Facilities, Safety and Security, told the Lynnwood Times, but it was an intentional process, on Sno-Isle’s part, to be environmentally conscious and not just dump the old building scraps in a nearby landfill.
Once demolition ends, the ground will be levelled and graveled while Sno-Isle Libraries, and their architects at Johnston Architects, finalize a plan for the building. As it stands, there are three draft concepts: one a 15,000 square foot building, one a 30,000 square foot building, and another a 50,000 square foot building. The main difference in space will be parking and the amount of community event rooms, Sno-Isle Executive Director Howard told the Lynnwood Times.
Which concept the library network chooses will depend on the findings of a “feasibility study” it plans to conduct in Fall of 2026.
“It’s increasingly hard to find areas that are free, where you can go and have a third space without feeling the obligation of buying a cup of coffee,” said Howard. “We also want our building to have flexible spaces in mind, because it’s hard to predict the purpose of a library 20 years from now.”
Back when Howard was first appointed to the Executive Director position by the Library’s Board of Trustees in November 2024, he told the Lynnwood Times he wanted to spend his first few months pursuing a robust community engagement effort, to get to know his community but also hear what they expect, and need, from their local library.
“I’ve learned from my many years of working in a library, that the trick is not to ask the community what it wants out of their library, it’s to ask what they need from their library,” said Howard. “Because they already have yesterday’s idea of what a library can offer them, but they don’t know all of the possibilities that we can offer.”
What he found, in South Everett’s Mariner neighborhood, is there really wasn’t any existing “third place” where residents could go, meet their neighbors, use the internet, have a quinceañera or family gathering, or seek career services or language services.
It was a point echoed by Senator Liias who told the Lynnwood Times when he approached the legislature about securing the approximately $4 million price tag for the project, there were several projects like this all over the state competing for funds. What set this project aside from the rest, he noted, was that it was in a diverse, low-income, neighborhood that had no other third space option for residents.
With youth violence on the rise, and ongoing concern in South Everett (with steadily increasing incidents and arrests since 2020, according to Everett PD data), this becomes increasingly important for youths – to offer a safe, third place, to meet with friends, get off the streets, and seek guidance through the Sno-Isle Library’s various programs it plans to offer here.
According to Senator Liias, there are over 90 different languages spoken at nearby Mariner High School – showcasing the diversity of the area, and with it, its diverse needs Sno-Isle plans to accommodate with its new library.
In addition to rooms which can be rented for social, and family gatherings, these programs will include BrainFuse tutoring services, in-person learning, events like story time for kids, career-based services (like referrals, resume assistants, etc.), and English language assistance.
What’s also unique to this project, Sen. Liias added, is that the site of the upcoming library is technically within unincorporated Snohomish County making it difficult to receive support from the nearby City of Everett, for example.
The future Mariner Library Community Campus is designed to become a central resource for approximately 230,000 residents in the unincorporated south Snohomish County area — a population that would rank as Washington’s third-largest city if incorporated. Its use will only extend further once the Everett Link light rail expansion opens in 2037 – 2041. Sound Tranis plans to add a Mariner stop as one of its six stations along the 16-mile extension from Lynnwood to Everett, making the Mariner Library easier to access than ever before.
It’s still much too early to know what, exactly, the Mariner Library will have in store or even look like – since a finalized plan or rendering has yet to be determined. The $4.5 million cost may even multiply by ten, said Senator Liias, by the time construction reaches completion – with supply cost increases, adjustments, parking, etc.
Regardless, as an Everett resident, born and raise, who has a close passion to the project, Sen. Liias said that he will plan to continue championing for funding at the legislature which may become easier to secure as the construction process progresses forward.
Author: Kienan Briscoe
