Update: A work session between the Joseph City Council and members of the Library Board has been scheduled for Monday, Oct. 23 at 6 p.m. at the Joseph Community Events Center, 102 E. First St. in Joseph.

JOSEPH — The Joseph City Council started its meeting on Thursday, Oct. 5, by listening to a presentation about plans to remodel an old medical building for the city’s new library.

Some two hours later, members of the council and Mayor Lisa Collier ended the meeting by airing concerns about the price tag and scope of the proposal — and Collier said she would schedule a work session between the council and the library’s board of directors to address those concerns.

The city plans to move its library, now located in cramped quarters in City Hall, to the 1,600-square-foot Blackburn Building, just down the hill from Joseph Charter School. The former medical office is being remodeled, but the city needs to find additional funding for the project.

At the front end of the meeting, the council heard a progress report about the library from civil engineer Jim Nave, of Devco Engineering, who’s been working on the project since 2022.

The renderings Nave showed the council depicted a 1,600-square-foot space with movable bookshelves, a meeting room and enlarged windows to allow more natural light. One challenge facing the designers, he said, was that the entryway would have to be redesigned so that it meets Americans with Disabilities Act standards.

Sara Miller, of the Northeast Oregon Economic Development District, which is helping the library raise money for the project, briefed the council on fundraising. She said the effort already has secured more than $450,000, largely from city donations of the building and work on the site.

The project faces two additional “milestones,” she said. Milestone No. 2 involves getting the library open for occupancy, with an estimated price tag of $408,926. The third milestone is for site enhancements such as landscaping, and that’s estimated at $122,323. She emphasized that those numbers included a 23% factor for contingencies and inflation. Miller said she was hopeful that private foundations could provide much of that money, along with private donations.

After Nave and Miller asked for questions after their 20-minute presentation, Councilor Stephen Bartlow offered a foreshadowing of the conversation councilors would have at the end of the meeting.

“I wanted to ask about a couple of cost questions,” Bartlow said, and asked about the cost of the windows depicted in the architectural renderings (roughly three to four times the cost of regular windows) and the price tag of the landscaping.

Near the end of the meeting, during a section reserved for comments from councilors, Bartlow returned to the library, noting that the total price tag for the project was about $1 million.

“It strikes me as being very costly and that we could provide a really nice library for less,” he said. “I may be the lone voice. I’m OK with that, I’ve had that before.”

He said he wanted a nice library, too, but the project “just seems kind of expensive to me.”

Bartlow was not the lone voice.

“I feel the same way,” Collier said. “I feel like they’re shooting for a Cadillac when maybe we should be looking at Fords. … We love our little library, I love our librarian, but we don’t even have the foot traffic in my mind to justify a million-dollar project and building. I love that we have a library. I love that we have the service, but it’s a huge price tag.”

Other councilors expressed similar concerns, and Collier said she would set up a work session between the council and the library board. That work session has now been scheduled for Monday, Oct. 23 at 6 p.m. at the Joseph Community Events Center, 102 E. First St.

In a comment received just after the Chieftain’s print deadline, Lynne Curry of the library board said: “The new Joseph Library will be a wonderful gathering space for the whole community to use and enjoy. The library board is excited to have the opportunity to discuss many key topics of this city-enhancing project, including cost estimates and potential grant funding, with the city council at an upcoming work session.” 

New councilor

In other action at the meeting:

• Councilors voted to appoint John Dundas to a vacant seat on the council. Dundas, who was sworn in at the meeting at took a seat with the council, owns John Dundas Construction in Joseph. His term expires at the end of 2024. His appointment means the council is at full strength for the first time in months.

• Heard a first reading of an updated city ordinance regarding signs and sidewalks. Council rules dictate that the first reading of any new ordinance be read aloud, and Bartlow handled that chore. The council will return to the ordinance at its November meeting.

• Voted to allow organizers of the Jingle Thru Joseph Christmas bazaar to store items in the Community Events Center between the two weekends of the event. The storage means that a church that rents the facility will not be able to use it on that weekend, but the organizers agreed to make up the $150 the city will lose in rent.

This story now includes a comment from Lynne Curry of the library board.

JOSEPH — A work session to discuss the library project with the Joseph City Council and members of the city Library Board will be held on Monday, Oct. 23 at 6 p.m. at the Joseph Community Events Center.

The events center is at 102 E. First St. in Joseph.

The session is an opportunity to gather information and ask questions about the library project.

The city has plans to remodel a former medical office building for the new library. The current library is in a crowded area in City Hall. The council plans to use that area for its chambers once the new library is established.

But at the Oct. 5 council meeting, councilors expressed reservations about the about $1 million price tag for the project.

The public is welcome to attend the work session in person or via the Zoom link below.

To join the Zoom meeting, log onto https://tinyurl.com/4fu37vxe 

The webinar ID is 826 7850 5696 and the passcode is 200391.

No public comment will be taken at the session.