{"id":22597,"date":"2018-05-18T07:38:28","date_gmt":"2018-05-18T13:38:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=22597"},"modified":"2018-05-18T07:38:28","modified_gmt":"2018-05-18T13:38:28","slug":"development-agency-pledge-boosts-missoula-library","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2018\/05\/development-agency-pledge-boosts-missoula-library\/","title":{"rendered":"Development agency pledge boosts Missoula library"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Libary\"<\/a>

Rendering by A&E Architects and MSR<\/p>

A preliminary design of the proposed Missoula Public Library as seen from Adams Street.<\/p><\/div>\n

The Missoula Redevelopment Agency\u2019s board of directors agreed on Thursday to give $200,000 to the Missoula Public Library and pledged an additional $300,000 over the next four years to help the facility retain the top floor of its new building, as envisioned in its design.<\/p>\n

Members of the library board approached MRA last month with their initial request, seeking $500,000 from the Front Street Urban Renewal District. The district doesn\u2019t have that amount of funding on hand, however, and MRA was reluctant to issue debt to cover the cost.<\/p>\n

MRA director Ellen Buchanan said the resulting agreement will see MRA contribute $200,000 in cash from the district and pledge an additional $300,000 over four years, not to exceed $75,000 in any given year, and only if there\u2019s excess increment available.<\/p>\n

That satisfied members of the library board, who lobbied strongly for the contribution.<\/p>\n

Mae Nan Ellingson, finance chair of the Foundation for the Missoula Public Library, said the library\u2019s funding shortage was revealed as A&E Architects moved through the process of design engineering and found that the facility couldn\u2019t be delivered on its $36.3 million budget.<\/p>\n

To date, the library has raised $4.6 million in private donations, along with $705,000 in other revenues, plus $30 million from the bond that passed in 2016, according to records provided to MRA.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were showing we were about $1.25 million over what they could deliver,\u201d Ellingson said. \u201cOne of the logical ways to shave off that $1.25 million was to shave off the fourth story. But as someone who has worked really hard on this library and wants it to be an iconic establishment for downtown, I was not very willing to let go of that fourth floor, and neither was the board or downtown.\u201d<\/p>\n

Set on keeping the top floor, the foundation approached Missoula Mayor John Engen and MRA to discuss the funding shortage. With encouragement from the mayor, the foundation proceeded to include the top floor in the final design.<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>\u201cWe had to make a decision at that point about whether we could move on, because you have to decide early on if it\u2019s going to be four or three stories,\u201d Ellingson said. \u201cWe felt in order to make a decision to go ahead with that fourth story, we needed to pursue help from the MRA.\u201d<\/p>\n

The foundation approached MRA last month with its request, which was originally higher than the $500,000 agreed upon Thursday. They also found support from Engen, who lobbied for the funding on the library\u2019s behalf.<\/p>\n

Engen said the city supports the project and voters do as well, evidenced by the passage of the $30 million bond. The top floor, which has been indicated in renderings since the project\u2019s inception, is intended to serve as a community meeting space.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeleting the top floor of this facility as a function of a commitment to the community doesn\u2019t make a great deal of sense to me,\u201d Engen said. \u201cI have faith in the library that we\u2019ll get a building that matters to this community for a long time. It\u2019s a minimus pledge today. It\u2019s perfectly reasonable.\u201d<\/p>\n

While MRA approved the agreement, several members of the board voiced concern before doing so, fearing it would limit MRA\u2019s ability to fund other projects in the Front Street district.<\/p>\n

Board member Tasha Jones said that while the $500,000 request may be small in comparison to the project\u2019s $36 million price tag, it still represents a large percentage of the Front Street district\u2019s revenue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the percentage you\u2019re asking from us is small in comparison to your bigger project, it\u2019s large in comparison to the amount of money it ties up,\u201d Jones said. \u201cWhether you call it a debt or a pledge, it still ties our hands because we\u2019ll feel morally obligated to live by that pledge, and we should.\u201d<\/p>\n

Geoff Badenoch, a member of the library foundation, said the city expressed similar concerns back in 1985 when weighing the use of tax increment financing to construct Caras Park. While the city\u2019s mayor at the time was against use of the funding, MRA voted to approve it anyway.<\/p>\n

The park now serves as a downtown attraction and has paid dividends to the community since its construction, Badenoch said. The library will achieve the same results, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the most important public structure that will be built in our downtown in the foreseeable future,\u201d Badenoch said. \u201cIt\u2019s making a small investment in a project that\u2019s going to bring dividends to Missoula County for the next two or three generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The day before MRA voted to contribute $500,000 to the library, members of the City Council approved a $3.6 million bond, of which $175,000 will be\u00a0paid to cover<\/a>\u00a0cost overruns and funding shortfalls associated with the Missoula Art Park.<\/p>\n

Ellingson said the library won\u2019t encounter a similar outcome due to the way the contract is structured.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe county is the party that will enter into the construction contract,\u201d Ellingson said. \u201cWe have a financial and construction agreement with the county that requires that before we enter into a guaranteed maximum price contract, we have to deposit the money with them that\u2019s necessary to complete the project. That\u2019s why we\u2019re making sure we have the money before the contract is let.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n

This article originally appeared on\u00a0Missoula Current<\/a>, an independent online newspaper, of which\u00a0Martin Kidston is the founding editor.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Missoula Redevelopment Agency\u2019s board of directors agreed on Thursday to give $200,000 to the Missoula Public Library and pledged an additional $300,000 over the next four years to help the facility retain the top floor of its new building, as envisioned in its design.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":97,"featured_media":22598,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[1886,6980,6419],"class_list":["post-22597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-montana","tag-john-engen","tag-missoula-public-library","tag-missoula-redevelopment-agency","prominence-category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/97"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22597"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22600,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22597\/revisions\/22600"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}