by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
On a 4-1 vote, the Sartell City Council voted to accept a motion made by Sartell Mayor Sarah Jane Nicoll not to discuss a city library until a final assessment is completed by the Great River Regional Library system, sometime next summer.
The action happened at the council’s last meeting, Nov. 23.
Council member David Peterson voted against the motion, saying it’s very important to discuss the library issue in deference to the Sartell residents who voted for a library as part of a community center when the half-cent regional sales tax was passed in Sartell – twice. To not discuss it, he added, would mean money would be spent meantime on the community center and then later, when the subject of a library does come up, there will be no money for one.
Council member Amy Braig-Lindstrom said later, after the meeting, she voted for the motion so later she could make an amendment to bring up a request to further discuss a library.
In making her motion, Mayor Nicoll said ongoing conversations on the council about the library have not been helping a difficult situation, that it’s pointless to keep rehashing library issues while waiting for the GRRL to complete and release its final long-term assessment plan, which is expected to be completed by early summer of 2016. That way, Nicoll said the council will have a better idea of exactly what GRRL expects for a library in Sartell.
That time of summer is the same time construction is expected to begin on the Sartell Community Center at its south site, favored by three of the five members on the city council.
Several times during the long discussion, Peterson strongly disagreed with ending library discussions.
“I think it’s time we as a council equally show we are flexible and work with GRRL to find a solution for here, which from all practical purposes is not the current location of the community center,” Peterson said.
Once again, as in previous council meetings, a potential Sartell library’s location was central to the discussion. Attending the Nov. 23 meeting were GRRL Executive Director Karen Pundsack and Benton County Commissioner Mark Bromenschenkel, who serves on the GRRL Board and who has long spoken in favor of a Sartell branch library.
Bromenschenkel, at the Nov. 23 meeting, told the council the south site for a community center is absolutely not acceptable as a library site to GRRL, which passed a motion to that effect. However, he added a site at Sartell City Hall property would be acceptable to the GRRL Board. As such, the GRRL has shown a willingness to compromise on its distance requirements, which require a branch library to be 15 miles or more from another GRRL branch library. The south-site location is seven miles from the St. Cloud Public Library and the Waite Park GRRRL-branch library.
Sartell City Hall is nine miles from those two libraries.
Nicoll said she finds it hard to understand if a distance of nine miles is now acceptable to the GRRL, why isn’t seven miles (from the community-center site) not acceptable – a difference of only two miles.
Council member Steve Hennes said it would be possible to get a 4,000-square-foot library in the community center if only GRRL would accept that location.
“We’d all like to see that happen,” he said.
Hennes suggested all the GRRL Board members should take a look at the architect’s plans for the south-side community center because, in his opinion, they would be impressed with the site, its surroundings and all the development (including neighborhoods in that area) that would make the site a good one for a library.
Peterson said there are now three options before the council as regards a library.
Option 1: No library will be acceptable at the southern site, thus no GRRL-branch library could be put there.
Option 2: Two separate sites, one for the community center, another for a library. Other sites further north, such as the former Villcheck property near Pinecone Central Park, are still viable, Peterson said.
Option 3: Change the location for a community center (with library) from the south site to a more northern site, such as Villcheck, and then build a strong partnership with GRRL to create a branch library.
If at least one of those options is not realized, there will be no branch library at all in Sartell, Peterson said.
Braig-Lindstrom said the council shouldn’t try to “spoon-feed” GRRL about the value of the south site for a community center. Hennes countered that, saying it’s not a matter of spoon-feeding anyone but that the GRRL should make itself aware of the potential for library services and use in that busy southern site.
Braig-Lindstrom also said there has been a lack of interest by the council in meeting with the GRRL or attending its meetings to possibly forge a strong partnership. Other council members took issue with her comments, adding the council could not move forward because it and Sartell city staff have not been given precise enough directions from GRRL. That, Nicoll said, is why the council should wait for GRRL’s long-term assessment to be completed.
Peterson again brought up the subject of how residents expected sales-tax money to pay for a library. Sartell City Administrator Mary Degiovanni said it would be possible to bond for a library, which would mean residents would pay for it through property taxes. Peterson bristled at that suggestion, stating voters meant sales-tax revenue to be used for a library when they voted for the half-cent sales tax, twice. They did not want a library to be paid for by property taxes, he added.
Degiovanni also said there might be up to $1.5 million left for a library out of the $12.5 million that will be bonded for the community-center project, expected to cost about $11 million. Sales-tax revenues to the city would be used to repay that bond issue.
