More than two weeks have passed since the Bemidji City Council and Beltrami County Board of Commissioners passed resolutions to commit to providing additional funding to restore services at the Bemidji Public Library back to the 2005 level. However, the restoration process is taking longer than library supporters had hoped.
Bemidji City Manager David Minke said city and county officials are still committed to bringing back full services even though it appears the earliest the services will be restored is March 23.
"I don't know if it's a hold up as much as it is a process," Minke said.
Since the Bemidji Public Library is part of the Kitchigami Regional Library system, the KRL Board must review the resolutions and approve the restoration of services before they can go into effect. KRL Director Marian Ridge said the KRL Board will consider the county and city resolutions at the next meeting on March 16.
"We have every hope that we can resolve the issues for 2006," she said in a telephone interview.
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The library has experienced a dramatic reduction in services since the beginning of the year. The library hours were reduced from 50 to 32 hours per week, two staff positions were cut and other staff members experienced a reduction in hours, no funding was made available for computer upgrades or new periodicals, and the traveling bookmobile was reduced to one day of service a month.
Though she said could not speak for the entire KRL Board, Ridge said she hopes they will agree to bring back services as soon as possible. She said if the KRL Board approves that request, services could be back as early as March 23 - one week after the board meeting.
Ridge added that if services are restored, the individuals who lost their jobs will be given the opportunity to return.
"If the restoration of services goes ahead as we hope, we will give the employees whose jobs were terminated the first chance to come back," she said.
A group of officials from Bemidji, Blackduck and Beltrami County have formed a negotiating team to work on library issues. Bemidji City Councilor Barb Meuers, who serves as the council representative to the committee, said the she thinks the committee will want to meet with Ridge and the KRL Board to finalize details before the services are officially restored.
"We should meet with her and her executive committee to make sure all the details are in place," she said.
Ridge said that while future meetings with the negotiating team will be necessary, she hopes that services can be restored before a meeting between the KRL Board and negotiating committee can be arranged.
"I have every hope that on (March 16) we can decided to get the services up and running right away," she said. "My hope is that no immediate meetings will be needed right away after the 16th."
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Meuers noted the negotiating committee requested to meet with Ridge and the KRL Board before March 16. In a letter to Beltrami County Commissioner Joe Vene, chairman of the negotiating committee, Ridge said that an earlier meeting could not occur because of scheduling conflicts.
Aside from developing a strategy to pay for and restore library services, the negotiating committee is also looking into the possibility of switching to a new regional library system. The resolutions passed by each entity in February included the intent to rescind the KRL master agreement.
Minke said the group has met one time so far to outline priorities and discuss strategies on how to work through the library issues.
"The group was unanimous that step one is restoring services," he said, adding that after services are restored the committee will then initiate discussions on its future involvement with KRL.
"We separated them into two distinct processes," he said. "We want to restore the services first, the other issues second."
Ridge declined to comment on her personal thoughts on the city and county plans to rescind the master agreement, but said they can break away from KRL if that is their choice. However, she added that she hopes the city and county officials will follow the process developed by the state if they decide to leave the system.
"The option to leave the regional system is within our agreement," she said. "That is certainly their right."
