Citizens Collect 2,000+ More Signatures For Library Petition

Citizens for the preservation of Renton's Cedar River Library say the seeped into Sunday as volunteers collected the last of the petitions Monday shortly after noon at the downtown Renton Library.

The group collected an additional 2,108 signatures, volunteer Stuart Avery confirmed via email after a hand-count of the petitions.

Avery estimates between 20-25 volunteers turned out this weekend. Instead of standing outside of Safeway and Target, volunteers met at the downtown Renton Library and then canvassed Renton neighborhoods, going door to door for more signatures.

Angelina Benedetti, King County Library Cluster Manager, said it was business as usual at the library over the weekend with the expetion of a few library patrons asking for more information about the new library location

Volunteer Judy Tabak couldn’t be happier with the additional signatures.

“We are thrilled,” she said on Monday.

The petition began more than six months ago following the on South Third Street. The petition asks the City to either invest in the current Liberty Park location over the Cedar River or bring a change of location to a vote of the people.

; however, King County Elections reported last week that only 4,933 were valid. The group needed 6,375.

Signatures were considered invalid if they were illegible, didn’t match the signature on file, if the address was outside city limits, or if the voter’s registration was canceled, among other reasons, said King County Elections spokesperson Kim Van Ekstrom.

Avery will now re-submit the new signatures to the City of Renton, which will turn them over to King County Elections for auditing.

The next step is slightly unclear. The City of Renton clerk has not returned a voicemail from Patch on how the City plans to proceed. Patch will update this story as soon as we receive updated information.