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Urban renewal will pay in White City By PETER WONG A new White City branch library will be the second of 15 in the Jackson County system to be designed. Acting last week as White City's urban renewal board, county commissioners approved an architectural contract with a Portland firm and a Medford firm to design a new library on Avenue C. The contract with Fletcher, Farr Ayotte of Portland and Skelton, Straus and Seibert of Medford is for $128,838. The same firms studied building and parking needs for 14 of the 15 libraries in the county system, including White City, but did not do specific designs. Ashland's study and design were done by a different architect and paid by the city. The current White City library on Antelope Road is 2,100 square feet. The study proposes a building of 6,571 square feet. "The building is totally inadequate for the number of people it serves," Commissioner Sue Kupillas said. "This is a logical place to spend urban renewal money." The building's $1.1 million cost will come from an urban renewal bond issue that commissioners approved Nov. 24. It will not be part of the $38 million bond issue that commissioners will consider Wednesday for the 14 other libraries. Urban renewal bonds are paid by tax-increment financing, which uses the taxes generated from increased property values to pay off bonds for public improvements. The library will be the second building in a civic center for White City, the county's largest unincorporated community. A larger Rogue Family Center, which will house social service agencies and a sheriff's office, is under construction. "White City has never had a central area -- Highway 62 has been its main street -- so this helps create a civic center," Kupillas said. "A library was in the proposal for urban renewal in White City before improvements to the countywide system ever came up." Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA