For the week of Dec 31, 2002 - Jan 7, 2003

Hailey Public Library expansion moves ahead

City relocates meetings 
to accommodate plan

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By GREGORY FOLEY
Express Staff Writer

Trustees and staff of the Hailey Public Library are considering several different uses for a meeting room in City Hall that the organization is taking over in 2003 as part of an agreement with city officials.

As part of the plan to expand the library, the Hailey City Council and Planning and Zoning Commission through 2003 will hold all public meetings in the Old County Courthouse at the corner of Croy Street and First Avenue.

The plan to relocate all public city meetings out of the Hailey Town Center—also called the Fox Building—was endorsed last month by members of the council after a long, sometimes contentious debate over the best use of the Hailey Public Library Meeting Room.

The debate was quickly resolved after library officials in November were given an opportunity to formally explain their expansion plans to the council in a public forum.

The library will begin moving into the meeting room on Jan. 1.

The meeting room on the first floor of the Fox Building is technically owned by the city, but the library has claimed the right to take over the site as a condition of a 1994 grant used to remodel the room and the adjacent library.

Bege Reynolds, vice president of the library board of trustees, said Friday that the organization is considering various uses for the new space. The organization is considering using the space to relocate its reference library, create a new children’s facility, and to provide additional display areas for books in its inventory.

Reynolds said library staff, trustees, and members of the non-profit Friends of the Hailey Public Library will convene a special public workshop in the first week of January to develop a detailed plan for the expansion.

"Everyone’s really excited," Reynolds said. "I think we’ll probably move on it pretty quickly once the decision is made."

The library plans to use some of the space to add up to 3,000 volumes per year to its inventory over the next three years, but after three years may again have to reassess its needs for space, Reynolds said.

She noted that library officials are planning to open the new facility by Feb. 1.

Meanwhile, city officials are investigating options for the city to construct sometime next year a new meeting room in the Hailey Town Center.

The city in 2003 will have to consider whether it wants to reconfigure part of the upstairs of the Town Center currently occupied by the College of Southern Idaho, or build a new meeting room in the building’s basement.

The city has not allocated any funds in its 2002-20003 fiscal year budget to construct a new meeting room, but will likely plan for such an allocation when a new budget is drafted in 2003, officials have said.

Hailey Public Library trustees in September initiated the plan to expand the library into the meeting room. However, after negotiations to make the move stalled, trustees in November publicly reiterated their commitment to expanding their facility starting in January.

Hailey city officials have noted that the relocation of city meetings to chambers of the Blaine County Board of Commissioners will continue through 2003, or until notice is otherwise given.

The first meeting scheduled to be held in the new location is a regular meeting of the Hailey P&Z set for Tuesday, Jan. 7, at 6:30 p.m.

 

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