No decision on library site

By JOHN STANG/The Daily inter Lake

New and old questions stalled Flathead County's library board Thursday from picking a site for a new main library.

These questions include:

. What about subterranean oil pollution at the old Tidyman's site, which had been an apparent front-runner for the new library?

. Does a prospective Tidyman's developer want to move too fast for a public agency to do the proper due diligence?

. Is the library board moving too slow to realistically deal with the local real estate market?

. Is a remodeled building or a new building better?

On Thursday, the library board gave no clear indication of what it wants to do next.

"I don't think all the alternatives have been thoroughly analyzed," board member Anne Moran said.

Moran suggested a countywide survey on potential locations and costs, but the board took no action on that suggestion.

The next meeting at which it can address the issue is scheduled for Dec. 6.

Right now, the library's main branch in Kalispell occupies 23,250 square feet of the three-story 29,250-square-foot former U.S. Post Office building downtown. The Kalispell library also has only five parking spaces, including two reserved for handicapped drivers.

The Kalispell school district owns the 92-year-old building and leases most of it to the county library system.

The library board thinks that a 55,000-square-foot building with more meeting spaces, more room for books and a significant amount of parking is needed.

The board has been looking at two options.

One is remodeling the 52,000-square-foot former Tidyman's building, 55 First Ave. East North - adding a few thousand square feet to its front. The other is building a new library on land donated by Flathead Valley Community College.

Both choices have preliminary estimated costs from $16 million to $19 million.

The board hopes to raise roughly one-eighth of the final estimated cost through private donations. The rest likely would be financed through a bond sale that would be put to a public vote.

On Thursday, audience member Lynn Langstaff said she knew of another potential downtown site that could become available to the library. But she declined to say where it is, saying she did not have permission from the owner to do so.

E-mails and letters from the public to the library have favored overwhelmingly a generic downtown site or specifically the Tidyman's building - the only potential downtown site mentioned by name.

Rollins-based WM Capital Group has put money in escrow in anticipation of buying the roughly 5-acre Tidyman's site from the Spokane investment group that owns it. WM Capital Group has a 30- to 60-day window before having to decide whether to buy the site.

WM Capital Group wants to remodel the Tidyman's building into a library and develop the rest of the site - which does not include the adjoining Dollars store or the two bank buildings on the same block.

WM Capital Group hopes eventually to put two 4,000- to 5,000-square-foot business buildings on that block, while keeping most of its huge parking lot intact.

However, leftover oil pollution is beneath the Tidyman's site - remnants of when three petroleum storage sites were next to the railroad track just south of the store. The water table at that location is from seven to 15 feet beneath the surface.

Much of that petroleum was removed a long time ago, but the remaining oil will be hard to remove, said Jeff Kuhn, a section supervisor in the Montana Department of Environmental Quality's remediation division.

The state has monitoring wells on the site.

The state has no current plans to order the remaining oil removed. But it won't rule out requiring removal in the future - with or without construction churning up the site, Kuhn said.

"The terms of risk are hard to gauge. … It sounds like you need to analyze this a little more in depth. … You know where the contamination is and isn't. Invest a little more money up front and then make a decision," Kuhn told the library board.

Meanwhile, John Wilbur Jr., a partner in WM Capital group, tried to get the library board to say Thursday that it would go with the Tidyman's site if that location satisfied the board's due-diligence efforts, including looking at the pollution.

Wilbur said the Spokane investment group wants to sell the Tidyman's site soon, not several months from now.

And Wilbur said WM Capital Group does not want to tackle hundreds of thousands of dollars of environmental studies and design work without a public statement by the board that it would select the Tidyman's site if no major hurdles surface.

"I'm looking for a commercially reasonable handshake that you are interested in the site," he said.

However, at least three of the five library board members did not want to tie their selection decision primarily to a developer's timetable.

Moran, Jerry Hanson and Kala Lougheed wanted more detailed development plans before they would consider voting on a statement of interest in WM Capital Group's proposal. Wilbur countered that the group needs the board to say publicly that it is seriously considering Tidyman's before the corporation can pay to draw up those plans.

Board member Laura Long favored giving WM Capital Group a public statement of interest - with a caveat that the board can withdraw it if the Tidyman's site shows major problems. Board Chairman Dave Hilde gave no indication of his feelings about that or on what location he preferred.

Hanson said he would vote against any site that does not have a state promise that underground pollution won't require cleanup costs later. Long countered that no downtown site can pass that test.

Also, Moran, Hanson and Lougheed contended that board should take its time to study all options and information before picking a location at which they feel voters would support paying to create a library.

"I don't see the urgency to jump at the first opportunity to come whizzing by," Hanson said.

About 30 people attending Thursday meeting. Nine spoke in favor of a downtown location.

Two former library board members - Bill Kuehn and Bob Lopp - spoke in favor of moving the main library to Flathead Valley Community College. North Kalispell is replacing the downtown as the county's population and commercial center, they said.