To spend or not to spend – that was the question being pondered by City of Sammamish councilors at Monday night’s capital project budget study session.

In a time of falling property values and construction costs, but also falling revenues, the city is considering whether now is best time to spend a significant proportion of the more than $10 million the city has in savings.

The views of the councilors themselves were a mixture of opportunism and caution, aware that the economic future is unclear and conditions could in fact get worse before they get better.

Financial Services Director Lyman Howard said the council would do well to avoid any expenditure that would be attached to ongoing costs in the future.

“If the council choses to avail themselves of the $10 million, I would advise that it be spent on a one time project,” he said. “We don’t want to increase ongoing operations and maintenance costs, as this would come out of the general operations budget.”

Following Howard’s suggestion of a one-time spend, the purchase of a site for a teen or civic center dominated the council’s discussion.

“The bad news is that property values are down,” said councilman Lee Fellinge. “The good news is that the property values are down. “Maybe now is a good time to acquire the library. This could be a one-time opportunity to get a good deal.”

Fellinge was referring to the Sammamish branch of the King County Library on the corner of 228th Avenue NE and NE Inglewood Hill, which will become vacant sometime in early 2010 with the completion of the new branch facility currently being built next to Sammamish City Hall.

The King County Library System (KCLS), which owns the building and land at the current site, hopes to find a buyer for the property.

KCLS spokesperson Julie Williams said in April that the library system has “indicated it would be willing to entertain a bid from the city.”

Should it want to purchase the property, the city would be asked to pay “market value,” which, given the current state of the real estate market, would probably be less than when it was when last assessed in 2007.

That assessment priced the land and building at about $5 million.

Fellinge prefaced his excitement for the purchase of the library with more conservative thoughts.

“We need to be cautious about feeling like we need to go out and spend this money,” he said. “I would rather we keep our powder dry for a while. It is questionable as to how quickly the economy will recover. I would advocate that we retain a significant portion of the $10 million.”

Councilman Jack Barry agreed, saying that there was danger in proceeding to quickly, particularly in light of the projected cross-over point in expenditure and revenue in the next four to six years.

Fellinge said that the city should look to continue the partnership it had worked to build with the Redmond/Sammamish Boys and Girls Club during negotiations for last November’s park bond measure, which would have guaranteed funding for a teen or civic center but fell just a few percentage points short of the 60 percent supermajority it needed.

Such a partnership would see the club responsible for much of the facility’s ongoing maintenance costs.

“While (the bond) didn’t get 60 percent, it got 57 percent, which indicates that there is still some interest in it,” Fellinge said.

Councilor Kathy Huckabay agreed that the city should be looking at securing a site for a future center, and said she hoped to see such a center on the Sammamish Commons. She suggested that the city could perhaps buy the land now, while prices were low, and proceed with construction later.

But she also said that there were other projects that urgently needed funding.

“There are a lot of projects, including road overlays, that we really have to do, that we have a responsibility to do,” she said, adding that the council should heed the warnings of many economists that an economic recovery is some way off. “Before we start making a commitment to the community (on how the money will be spent), we have to have a strong idea of where we’re going to go, and where the money will come from.”

Mayor Don Gerend said that while he appreciated the need to be cautious, he also appreciated the opportunities presented by the current economic environment.

“The other side of ‘let’s now spend it right away’ is that construction costs are down,” he said, adding that prudent expenditure now could result in savings in the future.

Earlier in the discussion, Huckabay said she would like to see some progress made on the Sammamish Landing Park, a parcel of land on Lake Sammamish gifted to the city in 2001, but said that she recognized this would have demands on future maintenance budgets.