Committee wants advice on site for new library

A committee is soliciting public suggestions on where in Kalispell to put a proposed new Flathead County Library.

People with suggestions can contact Stewart Harvey, director of the Flathead County Library Foundation, at 758-2469 or stewart@flatheadlibraryfoundation.org.

Harvey is a member of the library's building advisory committee.

That board went into hibernation in summer 2008 when the library board dissolved amidst some bitter and complicated library politics.

The Flathead County commissioners appointed new board members. The advisory committee met Tuesday to restart work on finding a new site and determining what should be included in a new Kalispell library.

The county library system has five branches, with the main library occupying 23,250 square feet of leased space in a 29,250-square-foot, 92-year-old former post office building on First Avenue East in Kalispell.

The Kalispell library has five parking spaces. The Library Board believes a roughly 52,000- to 55,000-square-foot building is needed with more meeting spaces, more room for books and at least 200 parking spaces.

A preliminary architectural study estimated that it would cost $16 million to $19 million for a new main library. That study targeted 2012 as potentially when a new Kalispell branch could be ready, but the Library Board is not locked into that date.

On Tuesday, some committee members speculated that a Kalispell library could have some community center aspects, which might make fund-raising easier.

Right now, the board is not leaning toward any site, nor has it begun ruling out any locations.

In fall 2007, two sites became front-runners for a new library - unused land at Flathead Valley Community College and the empty 54,813-square-foot Tidyman's building.

But the previous Library Board rejected Tidyman's because it lacked money to renovate it and because of ground pollution concerns. A bitter internal dispute over the Tidyman's option helped lead to the previous board dissolving last summer.

Tidyman's since has gone out of contention as a library site. The building's owners, who also own Super 1 Foods, plan to put a grocery store there this spring.