A reduction in contributions over the past year has taken its toll on the Libby Memorial Center. As a result, the Kootenai Heritage Council board of directors laid off the Memorial Center’s sole employee and has taken over his duties indefinitely.

“We lost lots of money last year so we’re trying to recoup that by running it by the board,” said Rich Burns, interim president of the KHC board of directors. “We’re trying to save money and get more people behind the center – to build our member list and volunteer list.”

The all-volunteer board took over Executive Director Brandon Roberts’s duties in January and expects to continue running the Memorial Center for at least another 90 days, according to Burns. 

“After that it will be a board decision,” Burns said. “We’d have to evaluate how we are on funding. We’re hoping to get ahead during that time.”

The board hired Roberts as the Memorial Center’s second full-time employee last year to focus on obtaining more grants and contributions. Technical Director Greg Woods held the other position.

“It’s a lot of work for one person, so we tried two people to free one person up to concentrate on raising money,” Burns said. “We didn’t get in as much as we hoped.”

The board didn’t replace Woods, who resigned in September to pursue another job, for financial reason. Now the board has decided to shoulder the day-to-day responsibilities of running the center – answering phones, picking up the mail, paying bills, performing maintenance and rearranging the setup for different events.    

“We have a very determined board that have their hearts into it to keep it going,” Burns said.

KHC, a nonprofit that operates completely on grants and donations, leases the Memorial Center from the Libby School District and has raised the money for all of its improvements. KHC informed the school board at its last meeting that it would become a “working board.”

“A good working relationship with the school is very important to the board,” Burns said. “We went to the school board meeting to assure them that we are doing everything humanly possible to keep things going.”

The center needs more money and more volunteers, Burns said. Arts grants to put on individual events come easier than grants to cover the facility’s expensive overhead.

“We’re searching for someone to help us get more grants,” he said. “We’d like to get grants to help cover operating costs – heating, utilities… one that covers the cost of an employee would be great.”

Burns, who has been involved almost since the center’s inception a decade ago, said that it has never been very financially secure.

“It’s been a rough go ever since it opened,” he said.

The Memorial Center is capable of hosting large events that could not be held at other local venues such as the Little Theatre, the VFW Hall or the Ponderosa Room. It’s a grand venue, Burns said, that has held many fundraisers for other organizations over the years. With the right kind of help from the community, Burns thinks that, perhaps, the Memorial Center could throw its own annual fundraiser to supplement its yearly budget.

“Our intention is to keep the Memorial Center alive, to keep it going, to keep it functional,” Burns said. “I think it’s something the community needs. We do have quite a bit of community support, but we need more.”