PRIEST RIVER — While on paper the changes are slight, a boundary line adjustment between the county's two library districts will have a huge impact on the West Bonner Library District.

Under the change, which was approved Aug. 20 by both the East Bonner County and West Bonner library districts, library taxing boundaries would be changed to match those of the Lake Pend Oreille and West Bonner County school districts. 

The idea has been discussed for decades, officials with both the West Bonner and East Bonner County library districts said. However, nothing formal was ever done — or asked. That is until May when West Bonner Library Director Megan Mize approached her counterparts in Sandpoint to gauge the East Bonner County Library board's interest in changing the boundary line between the two districts.

It is, Mize and East Bonner Library Director Vanessa Velez said, an idea that makes sense — and one whose time had come.

"This is huge, for us," Mize said of the impact on her library district.

Not only is the change appropriate, but East Bonner officials and board members said it felt like the right thing to do.

"When it was presented to me, I thought it sounded fair," said Velez, adding she researched the potential impact to East Bonner but soon realized the impact to her library district would be minimal while benefitting the West Bonner libraries in a substantial way.

"When it just came down to it, we're one county," Velez said. "We cover one county and why not work together and share? Libraries are all about equity and sharing and lifting people up, I just didn't see the reasoning behind not doing it."

Previously, the EBCL boundaries were set to match those of the Pend Oreille Hospital District when the Sandpoint-based library district was formed in 1974. The West Bonner Library District dates back to 1987 when the Priest River Library formally became a public library.

Now that both library districts have signed off on the boundary line change, it heads to the county for formal approval; something Mize compared the process to that of a canvass of an election. The adjustment would then go to the Idaho Tax Commission for the legal descriptions for the boundary lines to be redrawn.

"It's not reinventing the wheel," Mize said. "We're just taking the lines that were drawn in 1974, which are the hospital district lines … and asking for those lines to be moved to the school district lines, which makes more sense."

The boundary line adjustment means West Bonner Library District could receive about $200,000 more in levy funds in its next budgeting year. However, losing the territory does not mean the East Bonner County Library District will necessarily be short by a correspondingly similar amount.

Velez said the state formula is a compilation of the past three years, allowing it to levy roughly the same amount, new construction notwithstanding. Based on 2023 numbers, the EBCL director said each taxing parcel might see a slight increase of about $2.20 per $100,000 valuation — if the Sandpoint-based district opts not to change its budget.

"It's more impactful for them as a gain than a loss for us," Velez said. "It's more fair, frankly. Simply put it balances it out a little bit."

Mize said the residents who live in the territory that will be moved into the West Bonner district already consider the Priest River Library theirs, utilizing its services and programs and checking out books. She estimates about 90% of those residents utilize the Priest River Library and not the Sandpoint Library.

The change means that she will be able to hire more staff or make part-time positions into full-time ones with benefits. Mize said it would also allow her to create a building fund to renovate parts of the Priest River Library that were once an old doctor's office and weren't included in a 2021 renovation.