Library board meets in unfinished building

Sisters’ not-yet-opened new library was initiated last week by an official meeting of the board of the Deschutes Public Library System. The DPLS runs the libraries in Sisters, Redmond, Bend, La Pine and Sunriver (see related story, page 19).

Sitting in what will be the adult section of the building, four of the five board members ran through a regular agenda starting at noon on Wednesday, October 19. Sisters Librarian Peg Bermel provided pizza and soft drinks.

Some windows were in but the floors, ceilings and walls of the building were quite unfinished. As board members took a brief tour they were careful to avoid piles of sawdust, lengths of 2x4s and power tool cords snaking across the floor.

Appropriately, one of the main agenda items was a request from the Friends of the Sisters Library for the county board’s support of a proposal to move, and thereby preserve, the original Sisters library building, which now rests behind the current library at the southwest corner of Spruce and Main.

Three members of a Friends committee coordinating this project — Deanna Robinson, Jean Nave and Norma Funai — briefly explained its rationale. They said that the small building, the first section of which was built in 1939, has historic value to the community, will be economically beneficial, can give the town’s children helpful perspective and will be of continuing practical use to the Friends as both a storage and sale site in connection with their several annual book sales.

Robinson said that moving and renovating the building will probably cost $70,000 to $100,000 but the organization has already received a pledge of $25,000 and is confident it can raise the rest through grants and other means.

Nave, who is also president of the fledgling Sisters Country Historical Society, said, “That building has a heart and soul and it was born in this town. We can’t just abandon it.” She said preserving the building would make “a huge statement to our kids” by showing them “we’re trying to getaway from the throwaway society.”

The City of Sisters owns the land and the current library building, which was opened in 1990, as well as the original building. Robinson said the city council has informally agreed to give the older building to the Friends if they can get it moved to a new site.

The Friends want the building to be placed near the new library at the southeast corner of Cedar and Main but space there is not adequate. So the group has asked the Sisters School Board to provide land on the neighboring site of its new central administration building, a remodeled former high school (see story,page 1).

DPLS Director Michael Gaston said that while historic preservation is not part of the system’s mission, he was sympathetic to the request and anxious to maintain good relations with the Friends, who have contributed much in dollars and other forms of library support.

Gaston said he could endorse the project if the Friends deal with several concerns, chief among them the need for the school district not just to provide space for the building but to deed the land to the library system, which would become the building’s owner. (The Friends representatives said their organization will give the building to DPLS after it is moved and renovated.)

If the Friends can meet those requirements, Gaston said, the system would probably be willing to cover annual utility costs of the building.

While the board took no formal vote, President Ray Miao of Bend asked members to rate the project on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest. Mary Beth Pearl-Gent, the Sisters representative on the board, said she’d give it a 4, and members Pat Lawrence and George Riser agreed.