Renton City Council members and the City Attorney’s Office are drafting the explanatory statement that will appear in the voters pamphlet for the Aug. 7 election on the location of the downtown Renton library.

At the City Council meeting on Monday, council members voted unanimously to adopt the resolution that calls for the election on Aug. 7 and spells out the wording of the ballot measure.

The ballot measure reads:

“After Renton voters chose to join King County Library System (KCLS), Renton contracted with KCLS to provide a state of the art library in downtown Renton. The library will be located at EITHER the existing library location over the Cedar River (100 Mill Ave. South), OR West of the Renton Piazza (508 South 3rd Street). If the Piazza site is chosen, Renton will keep the existing library building for alternative public use in the future.”

Voters are then asked which location they want. The decision is binding.

The explanatory statement will give voters background about the issues.

This is a small victory for the grassroots efforts of the Citizens for the Preservation of Renton’s Cedar River Library.

The group campaigned for months and gathered signatures to get the City Council to address the number of citizens who opposed moving the library over the Cedar River to the new location on Third Avenue, near the Metro Transit Center.

The city had a deadline of Wednesday, April 25, to submit the election to the King County Elections Division in order for it to appear on the Aug. 7 ballot.

The next step in the process is for City Clerk Bonnie Walton to identify six people from the public, three for each side of the measure, who will work in committee to draft “Pro” and “Con” statements for the voters pamphlet.

Mayor Denis Law has asked council President Rich Zwicker and council member Randy Corman to work with the City Attorney’s Office on drafting the 250-word explanatory statement.

At the council meeting on April 16 there was discussion on whether a specific explanation of costs for the current location vs. the Third Avenue location would be spelled out on the ballot.

It is too early to tell exactly what the explanatory statement will say, said Assistant City Attorney Zanetta Fontes.