City seeks rent from Sisters Library

The City of Sisters plans to start charging the Sisters Library rent for its facility on the corner of Main Avenue and Spruce Street.

At a work session last week, the city council instructed city administrator Barbara Warren to send a letter to the library informing library staff that that rent would be charged after one month's notice.

Rent would be 65 cents per square foot and would amount to $1,690 per month for the existing structure.

This action stems from last year's election separating the Deschutes County library from county control and forming the new library district known as the Deschutes Public Library System (DPLS).

The new district has its own funding levy (55 cents/$1,000 valuation), a five member elected library board and a new sense of independence. Besides Sisters, branch libraries of the district include Bend, La Pine, Redmond and Sun River.

The City of Sisters contends that a new agreement should be negotiated since the library is a new public entity. Also, according to city officials, Sisters is not a rich city and funding sources are needed to maintain and improve city services.

Michael Gaston, DPLS Director, said the library wishes to maintain the current agreement between library district and city.

Bones of contention between the two sides include connection to the new sewer system, when completed. The city wants the library to pay for this connection. Library officials contend that, since the city owns the building, the city has the responsibility to pay the fees.

The library has agreed to provide materials for the hookup with the city providing labor.

The current library building has 2,600 square feet of space and an expansion is planned for year 2004. DPLS has pledged $500,000 for this project and The Friends of the Library have received over $90,000 in donations to help in this effort.

Since the city owns the present library building and grounds, library officials are wary of putting a large sum into expansion of a building they do not own. The present contract allows the city to terminate the building use agreement with one year notice, although no one has suggested that this should happen.

Some discussion has taken place regarding whether the city should sell the library building to DPLS.

Library officials state that the 10 year old library was constructed with $95,000 in donations by the Friends of the Library, $25,000 from a voter levy and $115,000 from a Library Services and Construction Act Grant.

The city has little direct financial investment in the building. Currently, the city handles outside maintenance at the library while the library district is responsible for inside maintenance costs.

"We don't view this as an asset of the City of Sisters," Gaston said. "Consequently, we do not see this as appropriate to be charged rent for use of the building. At this point we would like to continue negotiations with the City of Sisters. We see this as a long term partnership with the City of Sisters."

Both sides agree that the library is a valuable asset to the community. While Sisters population is 911 residents, the Sisters library serves a larger population base of between 8-10,000 patrons.

Editor's note: Conrad Weiler is presently Chairman of the Sisters Library Advisory Council.