City library adds books; lawsuit still lingering

The Whitefish Community Library

transitioned into a city-run facility roughly five months ago and

has seen a number of changes.

When the library opened in July the

shelves were a bit sparse and was in-need of more computer

terminals. Today, roughly 30,000 books are on the shelf and new

computers have been installed.

“Our offering list keeps getting

bigger,” said Mike Collins, chair of the Whitefish Library board.

“Hardly a day goes by that people aren’t donating books.”

The library has added computers that,

Collins said, are faster and as a result the number of “time outs”

when a user hits the one-hour time limit and must logout have been

reduced.

“We have maximum availability on any

given day,” he said. “We’re getting great use.”

While materials are filling the

facility, a court dispute between the Whitefish Library Association

and the Flathead County Library System regarding nearly 15,000

books has yet to be resolved. WLA is the nonprofit organization

that raises money to support the Whitefish library.

The status of those books, which are

currently on the shelves of the city library, remains in limbo as a

result of a lawsuit filed by WLA in Flathead District Court against

the county in June. WLA is asking for materials purchased for the

Whitefish branch over the years to be returned or remain at the

library. WLA claims the county wrongfully removed items from the

library during the transition from a county to a city-run

facility.

District Judge Stewart Stadler told

both parties to enter into mediation over the dispute.

Collins said WLA has put a $15,000

“deposit” on the remaining books until the issue is resolved.

“We’d like to be done with it and

finish the loose ends,” Collins said. “We’d like to get resolution

for those books and we’d like to get closure.”

The problem, according to Collins, is

that a mediator has yet to be selected.

“We proposed a mediator and the county

library board didn’t agree,” Collins said. “We proposed another,

but we haven’t heard back yet.”

Collins said the WLA wants an end to

the lawsuit and to focus on operating the library. “We’d like to

see it get resolved,” Collins said. “But here we sit — it’s

discouraging.”

Flathead County deputy attorney Tara

Fugina said progress on the suit is “on hold” and “nothing is going

on.”

Fugina said the parties involved are

trying to set up a mediator.

Collins said several people in the

community are assisting WLA with the legal fees associated with the

lawsuit, but resolving the suit and moving forward is the ultimate

goal.

“They (the county) don’t seem to be in

any hurry,” he said.

The Whitefish City Council decided last

fall to terminate the city’s agreement with Flathead County and

open a city library.

Flathead library officials then began

removing books from Whitefish shelves, but promised that any books

specifically donated to the Whitefish branch would remain after the

county stopped running the branch. Stadler ruled that a request by

the WLA to inventory the books alongside the county be granted.

In September the library was accepted

into the Montana Shared Catalog Partners Resource Sharing Group,

which allows Whitefish library cardholders to check out items from

any of the libraries in the network. The library recently announced

new hours beginning Dec. 1. The change is based on results of a

survey about library use, operating hours, programs and other

services.

Earlier this month, the Whitefish

Community Foundation gave the Great Fish Award to the library. The

award recognizes service to the community by a nonprofit group.

“We were thrilled with that,” Collins

said. “We’re chugging along.”