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City, library to meet over issues
By Jim Cornelius

Negotiators from the City of Sisters and the Deschutes Public Library District will meet November 8 to try to resolve a dispute over rent at the Sisters Library.

The city is insisting on being paid more than $20,000 in back rent. The city says it needs to charge rent to cover maintenance of the facility. Otherwise, the city argues, the city residents are paying twice for the library -- once in taxes to the library district and again in upkeep of the library.

The library district says it's willing to pay for specific maintenance charges, but won't pay rent. The library district doesn't believe the city can legally charge rent, claiming that would violate the terms of the federal Library Services and Construction Act grant that built the library.

The city withdrew an offer to sell the district the land upon which the library sits because the rent issue has not been resolved.

Library Director Michael Gaston said he is looking forward to seeing the library board and the council meet face to face to see if their positions "converge."

"I think the whole intention of the meeting -- and I'm very supportive of this -- is to have the members of the board talk directly with the city council," Gaston said.

Up till now, communications have been primarily made through attorneys' letters and sometimes tense conversations between Gaston and Mayor Steve Wilson.

Gaston said he hopes the meeting will allow the boards to "get personal and legal issues out of the way" so that the future of the Sisters Library can be discussed.

According to Gaston, the library district wants to secure its "equity" in the current facility -- the $115,000 grant the Federal government awarded to the City of Sisters to build the library and $95,000 in contributions from the Friends of the Sisters Library -- so that a bigger facility can be built.

"We think we're going to end up putting another $500,000 to $1 million into Sisters," Gaston said.

Wilson said that he, too, hopes that the meeting will "clarify positions."

"We were hoping to be able to communicate our position to the entire (library) board so that they can understand it," the mayor said.

Council members expressed some doubts that the meeting will be productive, noting that Gaston refused to respond to the city's latest invoice dated October 11 requesting payment of $23,700 in rent (including the October charge of $1,580).

Wilson said he thought that the rejection of the invoice indicates an unwillingness to bend on the part of Gaston. Councilor Lon Kellstrom questioned whether the library district board really has an independent voice.

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