Concerned that a lack of county commissioner support for relocating the Columbia Falls Branch Library has cast a negative pall over the project, the Flathead County Library Board reluctantly voted 3-1 on Monday to put the effort on hold.

“My gut tells me we’re fighting an uphill battle,” board member Michael Morton said. “I don’t see this as closing the door on the project, though.”

The board was under a deadline to give Whitefish Credit Union an answer about whether or not it had the financial support to go ahead with buying the Glacier Discovery Square building in downtown Columbia Falls. 

The First Best Place nonprofit group that acquired the building in 2008 dissolved last year and handed over the deed to the building to avoid foreclosure.

Discovery Square, with roughly 14,000 square feet on two levels, has been eyed for some time as a place where the crowded branch library could relocate.

Last year the commissioners withdrew a $1.9 million earmark for a new library in Columbia Falls that would have allowed construction in 2017. Undeterred, Flathead County Library System Director Kim Crowley and the board continued to pursue expansion opportunities for the branch facility at City Hall and targeted Discovery Square as the most viable option. 

The Library Board methodically worked through a review of the Discovery Square facility, with professional inspections by an engineer, a contractor and an architect.

The board also had a funding strategy to buy the building, intending to use $100,000 that was set aside for the Columbia Falls expansion several years ago along with a $200,000 donation from the Flathead County Library Foundation. Another $1.4 million would be raised through a private capital campaign.

However, Library Board Chairwoman Connie Leistiko learned Monday morning from a telephone conversation with Commissioner Pam Holmquist that the commissioners decided at a recent budget workshop to pull the remaining $100,000 out of the county capital improvement program budget.

“This is where things get a little murky,” Leistiko said.

Holmquist said it’s her understanding the $100,000 set-aside is to be used for upgrades such as shelving for the current branch library, but Crowley said the money was left in the capital improvement budget as a “placeholder” for facility expansion.

Crowley and the board said the Library Board has the autonomy to spend that money as it sees fit. Leistiko said she was concerned, though, about a “more troubling comment” made by Holmquist — that if the board purchased Discovery Square, perhaps the commissioners wouldn’t accept the building.

“There’s probably a good legal reason to believe they’d be thwarting our authority under statute if they arbitrarily say they won’t take the building,” Leistiko said. “But this is not exactly the way you want, the way I want to go into a project. I want us all working together. We’re volunteers trying to do what’s best for the community.”

There was also concern about the library foundation’s stipulation that it would chip in $200,000 as long as the county supported the project. Now that support from the commissioners is in question, Foundation President Margaret Davis advised the board the foundation board would have to discuss its proposed pledge “and consider it anew.”

Beyond the lack of county support, the board faced other hurdles.

Crowley met with the Columbia Falls City Council recently about the relocation project and didn’t get immediate support from the city. There’s also a question of community support, Holmquist had advised Leistiko.

“Commissioner Holmquist said she’s talked to a lot of Columbia Falls people ... and that basically Columbia Falls doesn’t want it or need it,” Leistiko reported to the board, though Holmquist also told her the number of pro and con emails and phone calls tipped only slightly in favor of keeping the library where it is.

Board member Jane Lopp said it’s troubling the commissioners didn’t discuss their rationale for not supporting the project when board members and Crowley recently met with them.

Leistiko said Holmquist told her the county is concerned about higher maintenance costs for a bigger facility.

Board member Al Logan was the lone proponent of moving forward with the building purchase.

“I realize we’re up against obstacles, and it’s disappointing the commissioners — at least two of them — don’t appreciate or value a project of this magnitude,” Logan said.

Leistiko said she’s concerned about the commissioners “willy-nilly” pulling money out of the capital improvement program, saying it makes long-range planning difficult.

Following the board’s vote, Crowley suggested the board authorize the library staff to complete a library facility master plan that would include documentation about the need for more space in Columbia Falls. The board agreed to put the request on its next meeting agenda.

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