Library officials tackle varied agenda at meeting
No firm news yet on deal with city over building

By Katie Pizza
Argus Observer
Friday, April 3, 2009 11:11 AM PDT

Ontario — Two committees, similar names and no solutions.

The Malheur County/ City of Ontario Library Board, the committee currently in charge of the day-to-day operations of the library, and the newly-formed Ontario Library District Board, the entity that will take over library operations July 1, held separate meetings Wednesday night to discuss the newly-formed library district’s continued transition period — including what will become of the city-owned library building.

“I’d love to be able to tell you that it’s been figured out, but it hasn’t,” Ontario Library District Board Chair Donnaclaire Blankinship said.

She said the Ontario Library District Board, which was created after voters approved the district in November, has made an offer, and the city will discuss that offer Monday.

However, she said she did not know what the outcome of those discussions would be.

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“Of course we would like it to be gifted without strings attached,” she said.

Malheur County/ City of Ontario Library Board member Michael Jones spoke out against the word gifted and said he would like to see discussions about the building referred to as more of a “transition” from one entity to another.

Blankinship said a possible future would be the district utilizing the building for one year for no cost. She said this would help the library district to figure out where it stands financially, which is further complicated since the district recently learned it would have to create a 18-month budget by July 15. Johnson said the budget is different than other budgets because the district must cover itself from July to December, when property taxes come in, and then continue to fund itself until the next December when the property taxes come in again.

“It’s so you’re not looking at borrowing again,” she said.

She said after the first few years, the district would move to a more traditional budget, since the organization will have a better idea of where it stands financially.

Another budget issue that is up in the air is the fact the City of Ontario has also requested the district create a capital improvement fund, which would be used to pay for repairs to the roof and other maintenance costs.

However, since the budget is not finalized, Blankinship said what that fund would look like is questionable. 

“What we could put in is nebulous at this point,” she said.

Malheur County/ City of Ontario Library Board member Donald Oakes said he believed the board should be able to vote on the current negotiations with the city.

However, Jones countered, while the Malheur County/ City of Ontario Library Board is curious about the discussions between the newly formed Ontario Library District Board and the city, it is not able to be involved in those discussions.

The reason, he said, is because much of the discussion, happens in executive sessions, which are not open to the public, which includes the Malheur County/ City of Ontario Library Board members.

Another issue brought up at the meeting is how much repairs to the roof and the library’s backflow would cost. Blankinship said she believed repairs to the library’s backflow system would cost around $15,000, however Ontario Mayor Joe Dominick, who attended the meeting, said he believed the price was lower.

“That backflow filter, I thought it was only $7,500,” he said.

Ontario Librarian Darlyne Johnson also said she believed $7,500 was budgeted for the backflow. However, the city opted to hold off on replacing the filter because the city still has a year or two before state law mandates it be replaced.  Dominick also said he believed the $15,000 Blankinship was referring to also included another city building, which he believed was at the Ontario golf course.

In other business, the Malheur County/ City of Ontario Library Board voted to allow the Eastern Oregon Employment Services office to utilize the library meeting room for training a few times a week.

Johnson said the agency would pay $50- $100 a month in order to use the room once or twice a week.

She said the agency would donate this money to the friends of the library, and it would probably be used to buy books.

Johnson said she did not want to charge a large amount of money for use of the building because of the state’s current economic situation.

“The state’s hurting too,” she said.

She also said the meeting room is a community room and should function as such.

The board also voted to allow St. Paul Lutheran Church to receive free library cards in the same way the local schools are able to borrow books, which students are not allowed to take home.

“The school is responsible for the books,” she said. Jones expressed support for the move because the church is part of the community.