by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
The Sartell Community Center will probably have a library service after all, sort of, but nothing like die-hard library supporters in the city have long wanted – a branch library of the Great River Regional Library system.
Instead, at the Sept. 12 city-council meeting, members voted 3-2 to approve a resolution that would allow for a drop-off and return area for library materials in the community center that will be constructed in south Sartell.
Sartell residents could request the materials at the community center, then the items would be delivered by the GRRL system to the center and placed in lockers where residents could pick them up. Once used, the materials could be dropped off at the community center to be picked up by GRRL.
The system is know as a “Local Material Delivery/Return Service.”
For more than a year, Sartell library supporters have been requesting a branch library, but that outcome became increasingly unlikely because the majority of the council on a 3-2 vote last year approved a community-center site in the “Town Square” area of south Sartell, near the St. Cloud border line. That site, GRRL noted, is too close to the St. Cloud and Waite Park libraries to be acceptable as a branch-library location.
Library supporters expressed frustration and even anger toward the three council members because they noted Sartell residents voted twice to approve the regional half-cent sales-tax on ballots, and the ballot question included using the sales-tax revenue for a library, among other amenities. Those who voted for the south community-center site were Mayor Sarah Jane Nicoll and council members Steve Hennes and Pat Lynch. Those opposed to it were Amy Braig-Lindstrom and David Peterson. Those same two council members voted against the limited library-service resolution at the Sept. 12 meeting.
The GRRL will still have to approve the library materials-request-and-drop-off service requested by the 3-2 majority of the council.
Council member Peterson, in casting his no vote, said the request did not include any public input and the issue should have been the subject of a public hearing. Peterson and Braig-Lindstrom have long been adamantly opposed to siting the community center in the south Sartell location.
Other members of the council, those voting for the resolution, see the partial library service as a compromise to get at least some kind of library access within the walls of the city’s community center.
In a memo presented to the council by Sartell City Administrator Mary Degiovanni, she stated a full-fledged branch library would add $200,000 annually in operating costs for the city.
Start-up costs for the partial service favored by the council will probably cost about $3,500 a year for the city, based on current costs in materials exchange between the St. Cloud library and its branch Waite Park library. There are also plans to add an E-book download station at the Sartell Community Center.
An anonymous donor, Degiovanni said, has offered to pay the start-up costs for the partial library service at the community center. The partial service is mentioned in the GRRL’s recently approved long-term assessment plan.
In the Minnesota city of Hugo, there is a partial-service library consisting of a kiosk and a line of lockers (40 units). Library materials can be ordered at the kiosk, and they are then delivered two times per week. Library patrons get the materials by using keys to unlock the lockers. There is also a return place to bring back library items. The nearest libraries to Hugo are in Forest Lake and Mahtomedi.
This is an example of the lockers used to deposit library materials in cities that don’t have libraries but have access to nearby libraries through a “Local Material Delivery/Return Service.” Such a service might well be in the Sartell Community Center once it’s built.
