Col. Falls library relocation raises questions

The Columbia Falls City Council has scheduled a special work session on Monday to discuss the proposed relocation of the Columbia Falls branch library from City Hall to Glacier Discovery Square.

The First Best Place nonprofit group is pushing for the relocation to make the library — a branch of the Flathead County Library System — the centerpiece of the downtown Discovery Square it has purchased for a community center. The Flathead County Library Board supports the proposed library expansion.

The Flathead County commissioners have been invited to attend the council work session that begins at 7 p.m. Monday in the Columbia Falls Council Chambers. Members of the Columbia Falls Library Association and representatives from the Flathead County Library and First Best Place also will attend.

City Manager Bill Shaw said the council has been asked to write a letter of support for the relocation project to the county, but after some Columbia Falls Library Association members questioned the move and the financial feasibility of the project, “their comments were so adverse the council was uncomfortable” in writing the letter.

Flathead County Library Director Kim Crowley said expansion of the Columbia Falls branch has been in the library system’s plans for several years, and $100,000 has been set aside from the library’s capital budget. With a 54 percent increase in the checkouts of books and other materials over the past five years, the library has outgrown its quarters at City Hall, she said.

Relocating to Discovery Square would increase the space from 4,700 to more than 9,000 square feet, Crowley said.

But some members of the Columbia Falls Library Association say they have unanswered questions and reservations about the expansion project.

“The library is financially stable at its City Hall location,” Library Association member Carmen Wyman said, adding that she and others believe expansion at the current site should be considered.

She questions how the library would fit into the community center, where large events also would be held. Retail space and a conference area also are planned at Discovery Square, and she wonders how it all will fit together.

The Flathead County Library Board has an interlocal agreement with the city of Columbia Falls for the city to provide space, utilities and janitorial services for the branch library. That agreement would continue if the library relocates to Discovery Square, Crowley said. The county provides the staff, materials and equipment.

Crowley said that despite resistance from some Library Association members, the association has voted to support the project and has set aside $60,000.

Funding for the expansion project is still up in the air. First Best Place Director Barry Conger recently asked the county for $268,000 to help relocate the library and said county funding would go a long way in leveraging grant and foundation funding for the library. The commissioners took the request under advisement.

The nonprofit group has about $300,000 committed for what’s expected to be a $1.4 million project.

“What we want is the best possible library services for that building,” Crowley said, referring to Discovery Square.

The Columbia Falls Library Association has helped out the library since it started in 1956, when the library was located in a small building near the current Glacier Gateway Elementary School. The library was moved into its current quarters during a January blizzard in 1973, according to Library Branch Manager Deena Stacy, who said books were moved by bucket brigade.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.