The Flathead County Library Board of Trustees on Thursday signaled that it planned to adjust its offer for a new library branch location near the Kalispell Center Mall.  

“Right now, we have a signed letter of intent from both parties so we have kind of come to an agreement [on the sale],” Wendy Brown, real estate broker for the library system, told trustees on April 24. 

But negotiations remain ongoing, she said.  

At last month’s meeting, the board approved a letter of intent to purchase property near the mall in downtown Kalispell. Trustees originally offered Parkline Properties, which owns the land beneath the shopping center, $2.5 million for less than two acres of land at 20 N. Main St. in February. In March, Parkline Properties submitted a counteroffer of $3 million.  

Brown recommended two changes to the letter of intent: bringing the purchase price down to $2.9 million and including language with a guarantee that the developer would move forward with their broader plans for the mall property.  

Parkline Properties had, in its counteroffer, stipulated that the library system use its architectural firm. The library has proposed dropping that $100,000 requirement, which accounts for the drop in price from $3 million to $2.9 million. 

Upon closing the deal, the library system must break ground on the property within 36 months and complete construction by 2033. Library officials are hoping to close on the property around September. 

TRUSTEES ALSO approved a strategic focus document that aims to expand opportunities for teenagers and seniors within the library system. 

The document calls for increasing comfortable seating near the large print section, expanding the large print section, improving the financial literacy collection, partnering with Flathead Valley Community College to assist with offering financial literacy classes for teens, creating a teen reading challenge and hosting informational tours.  

Critics, though, questioned the narrow scope of the strategic document. 

“Some of these [goals] I feel like we could do on a random Tuesday,” Melissa Wood, a Kalispell mother said during public comment. “... This isn’t really a strategic plan, I mean the name says that, but I would really just encourage the board to reevaluate this.”  

Other patrons also expressed reservations about the intent of the plan.  

“You have to have some vision of what your future is going to be,” said Valeri McGarvey, a patron and Center for Restorative Youth Justice employee.  

McGarvey said she has worked on multiple strategic plans in her career.  

“You’re building a library and that isn’t in your strategic plan ... I find that surprising,” she said.  

The focus on two very specific objectives was intentional, according to Trustee Doug Adams. Past plans were vague, a “nebulous concept of things and nothing was obtained,” he said. Focusing on two things could foster concrete change, he argued.

Trustee Heidi Roedel stated that the focus plan in front of them does not limit the library’s efforts, rather it gives them milestones to track and measure. 

“They may be very modest goals, but that's OK, at least we have something for the first time where we can ask if we did it as a library,” board Vice Chair Carmen Cuthbertson said.  

Trustees will meet next month on May 22 for their next meeting which will include a budget review.  

Reporter Kate Heston may be reached at 758-4459 or [email protected].