Board Says No To Library Annexation

WAITSBURG - The Weller Public Library won't be annexed into the Walla Walla County Rural Library District anytime soon.

Waitsburg City Adminis- trator Randy Hinchliffe said last Wednesday he received a letter from the library board of the Weller Public Library saying the board is not interested in annexing the city into the rural library district.

The Times asked for a copy of the letter and Hinchliffe responded the correspondence "it is more or less just a handwritten note indicating the Library's Board desire not to join the Rural Library District as they feel they don't have enough information on this matter at this time."

Jim Leid, a member of the library board, said the board would need to know costs, organization, taxation amounts and other details before it could commit to supporting annexation.

"What is it going to entail?" Leid said. "You want to know all of the facts before you make the jump."

Even though the city pays for utilities and maintenance of the library, the library board controls its operations and organization, Hinchliffe said.

" We don't have any control, we just write the checks," said Mayor Walt Gobel.

Even if the city council supported the annexation of the library into the rural district, the library board would have to give its full support before moving forward, Hinchliffe added.

Annexation could mean Weller would have a much- expanded collection in the larger library system. How- ever, the city residents would have to pay new a tax to be part of the library district.

The libraries in Prescott, Vista Hermosa, Touchet, Burbank and College Place are part of the rural library district.

Councilman KC Kuyken- dall said he would really like for the city to annex into the rural library district because it is a big part of life for his family.

"Our library is an ex- tremely underutilized asset," Kuykendall said.

He said he and his family rely on library services and travel to Prescott or even Mil- ton-Freewater, Ore., for more services than Waitsburg's library can provide.

"It's a real shame our library is sheltered from the library district," Kuykendall said.

He added that he would like to meet with the library board and discuss annexation possibilities.

Hinchliffe warned that if the city began pushing the issue it could be met with "a lot of pushback."He said this would likely because the an- nexation would mean a new tax for city residents.

"It's a tough situation," he said.

Kuykendall said he be- lieves members of the li- brary board volunteer to make the library a better facility and he said he wants to leave the issue "on the ta- ble" and make a compelling argument and reassess and decide when is a better time to engage in this discussion with the board.

Gobel said he believes the council put the issue on the back burner for a while.

"I think all we would do is make waves and upset some people," he said.