A committee looking into a potential merger of the Minot and Ward County public libraries would like to see a decision made at the polls.

The committee, which met Wednesday, March 18, is seeking legal advice for placing a measure on a ballot. It also wants to gather more financial information related to the libraries to present to voters if the Minot City Council and Ward County Commission are open to a committee recommendation for a ballot measure.

Although information presented by the two library directors at Wednesday’s meeting didn’t indicate initial cost savings with a merger, the committee sensed that there could be savings over the longer term.

City council and committee member Rob Fuller said savings could grow as more efficiencies are gained over time.

“There’s efficiencies that are going to happen there that we aren’t contemplating,” he said. “Just looking down the road, looking at utilities, looking at overlapping merchandise, looking at equipment, looking at only one facility, there’s savings in there of somewhere between $200,000 and $500,000.”

There also may be opportunities to reduce staff through attrition, he said.

“I believe, wholeheartedly, there is a lot of savings that we as a group can see over the course of the next three to five years,” Fuller said.

The committee’s leaning is toward combining the two libraries into the existing Minot building, with operational control remaining with the county. A merger has been studied previously, most recently in 2018. A sticking point in merger discussions in 2018 was the concern of rural residents that county services would suffer if the city operated a combined library.

The county currently levies 4 mills for the library and the City of Minot levies 7 mills. The committee concluded those levies likely would remain in place during the formation of a single library. Ward County’s Kenmare branch also receives a small levy amount from the City of Kenmare for building maintenance, according to information shared at the meeting.

Committee member Christine Cherry, president of the Minot Library Board, questioned whether the Minot library building would have space to accommodate the Ward County library’s staff and materials.

“Maybe down the line we do still save some money, but initially, how much is that going to cost us to redesign our building so that we can actually fit these additional employees and these additional services that we’re taking on? Because we can’t do that right now. We do not have the space for our current employees,” she said.

Minot Library Director Josh Pikka said because of potential flood wall construction on the property, any building expansion isn’t feasible at this time.

County Commission and committee member Ron Merritt said there’s discussion about a $5 million renovation of the Minot library, but this may not be a good time, given budget restrictions and 3% levy caps. However, citizens are wanting a discussion on a merger and a chance to vote, he said.

Fuller agreed with Merritt on the budget scenario and conceded merging the two libraries into the Minot location would be tight for a while.

“But again, is that a reason not to look at trying to save the people of Minot and Ward County some money by combining these two services?” he said. “Our job as commissioners and council members and everything else is to make sure we’re spending everybody’s money the correct way. And with two entities like this, even though one of them is quite a bit smaller than the other one, I’m not quite sure that we’re being as efficient as we can be.”

The committee plans to reach out to the State Library and ask the city attorney and state’s attorney to consult with the North Dakota Attorney General regarding how a voting process should proceed. The changes that voters in Minot and Ward County could be asked to vote on might differ and are yet to be determined. Data to inform the voters also remains to be gathered.

“We need to sit down and go through numbers again and get some verification on any savings,” Merritt said. “We need to look at the accounting and the employees and all of that. We need to have a number that will actually come true.”