by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
Answers about a possible library in Sartell will eventually surface, but only after a long-range assessment is completed by the Great River Regional Library system this June or July.
Late last year, the Sartell City Council voted to discontinue any library-related discussions until that GRRL assessment is finished. Critics of the council’s action maintain mid-summer will be too late, that by then work will have begun on the south-site community center in Sartell, leaving no half-cent sales tax revenue for a branch library.
However, there may be an option for some kind of library service for Sartell without having to build a full-fledged library, according to Julie Henne, associate director of public relations for GRRL.
Henne was interviewed by the Sartell-St. Stephen Newsleader last week.
Completion of the long-range assessment plan, she said, would be a guide for GRRL as to where it’s going and how to move forward. The plan, she added, is likely to come up with some answers as to where area cities want to go – their current needs and future wants and how those needs or wants may have changed.
There will likely be options for alternative services other than a 12,500-square-foot branch library, as GRRL has said would be required for Sartell if it wants a full-fledged branch service.
The GRRL Board has already approved a branch library for Sartell, but it cannot move forward because the city and GRRL, up to the present, have not been on the same page, so to speak. The council agreed to build a community center in south Sartell, which the GRRL said is too close to the St. Cloud and Waite Park libraries. In addition, GRRL expects a full-branch library to be 12,500 square feet, with the city pitching in up to $500,000 for a start-up collection of materials. Those requirements are just too expensive for what the council considers viable as part of a community center or even as a separate entity.
The assessment plan, Henne said, will make it possible for Sartell and other cities to know exactly what can and cannot be offered by GRRL.
“Then everybody can be on the same page,” she said, with full two-way communication, transparency and a “clear direction for everyone.”
Henne said the GRRL remains eager and willing to work with Sartell for some kind of library.
“Our sleeves are rolled up,” she said.
The assessment process involves a committee comprised of two GRRL Board members, the system’s executive director and three associate directors. One of the board members on the committee is Mark Bromenschenkel, a Stearns County commissioner who is a Sartell resident and who has long supported a branch library in Sartell.
The GRRL operates 32 branch libraries in a five-county region. It offers between 2,000 and 2,500 programs annually through its system.