Quincy may leave library district

QUINCY - Concerns about a contract may prompt Quincy to pull out of the North Central Regional Library system.

The city and the library district have been in the process of negotiating a contract where the district pays the city to rent the library.

The city wants the contract to include the new 9,700-square-foot library and the parking lot and other grounds, Mayor Jim Hemberry said. The district's board disagreed with the city, stating it would only pay for the building itself.

The mayor pointed out the amount paid to the city for the library doesn't cover more than the normal operation of the building. He is concerned if other problems arise, the city won't have money available to pay to fix them.

"My concern is the amount of money the City of Quincy (property owners) pay to the library district in relation to what we receive," he said. "Just the city, not the district, pays over $400,000 a year to the library district. Actually, in Grant County, we pay the most per capita."

Dean Marney, the library system's executive director, spoke to the city council, saying he doesn't like the contract. He explained the district started with federal funding and included five counties.

"It was five counties. It was in the rural area in 1958," he said. "Since it was rural, there were no cities. The cities were the ugly stepchild here, but then they had more money, they brought in the cities for those two years. Then there was a vote of the people, the rural library district was established, and cities then joined up with contracts."

Each of the cities contract with the district to provide services for the cities, while cities provided the building, Marney said.

"Within that, all along, we felt bad about it. We thought it was a weird situation, and so we always tried to kick some money back into the cities," he said. "So we had a contract to do that."

The contracts changed when Marney became executive director, because many cities weren't getting money, he said. City clerks were required to file receipts showing the money was used at the branch.

"Half of them weren't doing it," Marney said. "We stripped it down, so the city clerks did not have to keep track of all of it. We went to a straight dollar amount for square footage."

Quincy became a special case because of a rest room problem in 2005, Marney said. The district decided to add "grounds" to what they agreed to pay for.

"Now we come down to today. Where you have a much bigger branch, so we wanted the square footage covered, and we want to give the dollar amount for that," he said. "I kind of agreed with Jim (Hemberry) at that time in that we should cover maybe the planting area, but it seems the council wanted to go with the parking lot."

Marney pointed out Quincy has the only contract including "grounds," and 21 of the 28 branches of the library system only use the square footage of the building.

"Then we have, I think, four cities that are inside of city hall complexes, so we include the square footage of the library and then the hallway and the rest rooms, and then we have two branches where there is some outside area because there is a storage unit," he said.

The district's board told Marney they couldn't afford to include parking lots in 28 cities, and at the same meeting, the board cut health insurance benefits for employees.

Hemberry wanted to balance out the amount of money the property owners pay to the district in taxes, with how much they receive through the library, he said.

"I appreciate the history because I wasn't aware of some of the legal issues you dealt with early on," he said. "We get $27,000 to run the library, but it costs us $20,000 to pay for the insurance and the maintenance. It really doesn't leave us much to set aside for anything that might happen to the building."

Since the city has to maintain the parking lot, Hemberry said the council felt it  should be included in the money the district pays.

"It went from being the 15,000 square feet, that included the landscaping, clear back to the 9,000," he said.

Marney said it wasn't his plan, but the directors decided to only pay for the building.

"The problem is you are now part of a district, and you are rich," he said. "Now Quincy is seen as the golden opportunity down here and you're helping out people now in the rural area."

The system is putting more money into the Quincy branch by doubling the staff, Marney said

Dan Howard, the director of public service, said about 8,000 more items were added to the new Quincy library at an average price of $20 per item.

"We've spent a lot of money on this building this year, and we anticipate spending more," he said. "Our maintenance and use agreement, the money we will be spending, goes up dramatically even at the 9,000 (square feet). It just about doubles."

The library system can't increase the amount of money it wants in property taxes by more than 1 percent, Howard said.

"We're going to have 1 percent more in our budget, but we do plan to spend quite a bit more on Quincy next year," he said.

Hemberry agreed the people with resources should help the people without the resources, but he questioned whether the city got their fair share from the library system.

"I think we're helping other places other than the smaller cities in Grant County," he said.

Marney pointed out the same issues were raised in Leavenworth and Chelan, saying it is a big district.

"I don't have a good argument for that," he said. "I want to tell you, we think we're treating Quincy fairly and more. You're now the prime real estate in our district ... We're hoping for huge programs."

Councilmember Scott Lybbert suggested sending the issue to the Culture, Recreation and Leisure Committee to look at the possibility of the city running the library and pulling out of the library district. He wanted the committee to confirm remaining in the district is the best choice for the library.

"I suspect it is," he said. "It would be nice to look around and go, 'Yeah, you're right. This is the best (choice.)"

Marney encouraged the city to investigate the possibility, saying the North Central Regional Library system is a rural district.

"I've always said to people, 'We're not empire building at any time,'" he said. "If you're not satisfied with it that's always an option. We're doing the best we can and if that's not good enough, I would say, 'Do it.'"