Feb. 14—JAMESTOWN — The James River Valley System Board of Directors will host a public informational meeting at the Masonic Temple on Saturday, April 13, to gauge interest in acquiring the building for an expansion of Alfred Dickey Public Library.
A time for the meeting has not been determined.
The library board is exploring the purchase of the Masonic Temple for an expansion of Alfred Dickey Public Library. If the Masonic Temple is purchased, the Stutsman County Library would be permanently closed. The Masonic Temple is located across the street from Alfred Dickey.
A lot of people have not seen the inside of the Masonic Temple building, and the library board and staff want to know if Alfred Dickey and the Masonic Temple together can make for a good library space, said Joe Rector, director of the James River Valley Library System, after the library board meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 14. If the project is approved by voters, he said Alfred Dickey would host most of the books and the Masonic Temple would have most of the meeting and technology spaces.
“If the public is favorable at all with the library acquiring the Masonic building, we want to know about it,” Rector said. “If the public is not so keen on it, then we need to know that too.”
Lee Dobrinz, architect and project manager for JLG Architects, along with other engineers will be present to answer questions about the Masonic Temple.
If the public’s response is negative on having the two buildings, the process would end to purchase the Masonic Temple. If the public’s response is positive, then the board can negotiate a purchase price with the owners of the Masonic Temple and bring it to a vote for public approval.
Rector previously said the library system has saved a “significant” amount of funds toward the project if it is approved by a vote. He said he doesn’t think the library system should borrow money to renovate the Masonic Temple to bring it up to code so it can be open to the public. He said the library system should pursue grants and donations to cover the cost to renovate the building.
A preliminary cost estimate to renovate the Masonic Temple for an expansion of Alfred Dickey Public Library is about $3 million. The preliminary cost estimate does not include the price to acquire the building or a hazardous materials abatement.
The library board went into an executive session under North Dakota Century Code 44-04-19.1(9) and 44-04-19.2 on Wednesday to discuss with a real estate agent a negotiating position for the Masonic Temple. No action was taken after the executive session.
Rector told the library board that the book review staff isn’t sure if it can fully complete a review of the books in the children’s and teen section by the March 31 deadline.
The library system staff has until March 31 to determine if materials in the children and teenagers section have “explicit sexual material.”
He said staff has reviewed almost all of the books in the children’s and teen section at Alfred Dickey.
He said the staff at Stutsman County Library aren’t sure if all the books there will be reviewed by the March 31 deadline. He said he might request to close the Stutsman County Library for a few days to finish reviewing books in the children’s and teen section.
The passage of House Bill 1205 during the legislative session in 2023 removes or relocates “explicit sexual material” in public libraries’ children’s collections. The bill mandated public libraries to come up with policies and procedures before 2024 for removing or relocating “explicit sexual material,” handling requests to remove or relocate books, developing age-appropriate book collections, and periodically reviewing collections. The bill applies to any children’s book inventory maintained by a public library after March 31.
Libraries also will have to submit a “compliance report” on their policies to lawmakers.
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