Posted: 8/24/04
New library contract on hold
By David Heiller
Argus News Editor
Eight local librarians attended the Houston County Board of Commissionersí meeting on August 17 with the goal of getting a new contract.
The board delayed a funding request of $101,842 for Southeastern Libraries Cooperating (SELCO), but the two sides came up with a plan to get a contract that seemed to make everybody happy.
Second district commissioner Kevin Kelleher said he would like to see a uniform contract with all nine counties in SELCO. He said he would address it with commissioners from the other eight counties in SELCO at the annual conference of the Association of Minnesota Conference December 6-8 in St. Cloud.
The goal would be to get a uniform contract, an idea that SELCO executive director Ann Hutton and the other librarians at the meeting seemed to like.
Kelleher said he did not agree with Huttonís request for $6,097 for the Rushford library that was part of her overall funding package.
Hutton said that the Rushford library, which is in Fillmore County, was was included because many Houston County residents use it.
Kelleher said that many of those people are using the new library in Houston now. The board had not wanted to go down the reciprocity slope in the past, Kelleher said.
Hutton said that itís not normal reciprocity, but rather is a burden on the Rushford library. There are no firm guidelines, but Rushford felt Houston County residents were a substantial part of their use, Hutton said.
The City of Houston library serves a lot of Winona County residents with no reimbursement or reciprocity, Dave Corcoran pointed out.
Once the entire system is automated and everyone using it, then it will be a level playing field, Kellehe
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