City of Cashmere ironing out details for possible library move to Riverside Center

Talk in town has centered squarely on the Cashmere Library’s possible relocation to the Riverside Center since January of 2022. Mayor Jim Fletcher expressed his enthusiasm for the Riverside Center to finally become the community center Cashmere greatly desires.

“The library district has the programs and the staffing and the resources to actually maybe fulfill that original vision of making it a community center,” Fletcher said.

The Cashmere Community has generally been very supportive of the Library’s possible move to the Riverside Center, which could potentially expand the space and capacity for the library. 

Both the city and library are still negotiating certain details of the move which include total costs and rent cost, who are responsible for utilities and maintenance and structural changes to the Riverside Center’s infrastructure. 

“This allows the Library District to really start looking and using their funds to do their planning, bringing in architects for design [and] do further public involvement, so the library district will be doing quite a bit of the work on this.”

Fletcher states that the library will most likely be issued a long-term lease with an increased monthly rent due to  square footage rate and the sheer size of the center. 

Mayor Jim Fletcher hopes to receive an initial Memorandum of Understanding by this summer but won’t finalize the move until the memorandum has been sent.

“There's a lot of number crunching that has yet to occur between the two parties,” Fletcher explained. “[The library have] got so many projects that they've got going simultaneously, and funding is always part of the issue, be it state funding, or grants or whatever.”

Serious design work is projected to start on Fall 2023 and start construction by 2024.