Mayor calls for Colfax rep on library board

Becker ends 20-year stint as city’s chief.

Colfax Mayor Norma Becker, presiding over her final city council meeting Monday night, said the city needs to have representation on the Whitman County Library Board. The proposal evolved out of a discussion of the city’s long-standing agreement to pay 20 percent of the maintenance, repairs and upgrades for the county library building in Colfax.

Becker said the city needs to have representation on the library board because decisions to upgrade the library result in added annual costs to the city.

Library Director Kristie Kirkpatrick, who made a presentation on the library services to the council Monday night, said she was open to the suggestion and urged Becker or another city representative to attend a library board session.

Kirkpatrick in a Dec. 5 letter to the city projected the city’s bill for 20 percent of its portion of library building costs will be $12,279 over each of the next two years which is 20 percent of the $61,396 estimated costs that apply to the city’s share agreement.

The largest slice of the $61,396 is the $26,468 projected for facility repairs and upgrades which includes library payments on a 40-year $550,000 USDA development loan for remodeling the library.

Part of the $29,000 annual payments on the loan are paid out of a gift from the estate of Kathy Schluneger, but the library normally has to pay about $16,000 and the city will be asked to pay 20 percent of that under its upgrades provision.

Kirkpatrick explained the library’s agreement with 13 other towns in the county calls for each town to provide a library site and the library to provide the staffing and materials. Colfax follows the 20 percent formula because the library owns the headquarters building in Colfax.

Mayor Becker and council members complimented Kirkpatrick Monday night on the upgrades for library services and the remodeling. Council members also suggested the library’s newly named Norma McGregor meeting room could be used as a site for a retirement party for Mayor Becker who concluded her fifth term.