The cost to merge Minot Public and Ward County Public libraries would add nearly $700,000 to first year operating costs, but a committee investigating a merger continues to examine the numbers to see what the cost savings might be over time.

The joint committee of the city and county met Wednesday, May 20, to review potential 2027 costs of a merger. Cost information beyond the first year still is being compiled.

To get a measure for a merger on the November ballot, the committee would need to finish its work and have a recommendation to the city and county boards by July 6, which some committee members felt would be rushed.

Committee and city council member Lisa Olson suggested the entities take a slower approach after hearing from City Attorney Stefanie Stalheim, who said an option is a cooperative agreement between the libraries that wouldn’t involve a merger or require a vote.

“We could share some services. We could find some cost savings. To me, that is the most common sense, easy approach right now to kind of ease into and see if it works. Maybe saving a couple $100,000 is what we need to do, and we don’t need to push this square peg into a round hole, write up brand new agreements and have an election,” Olson said.

Committee Chairman and Ward County Commissioner Ron Merritt urged continuing with merger discussions but supported any cooperative arrangement that might be worked out in the meantime.

“This isn’t something that has to be rushed,” committee and council member Rob Fuller said in encouraging merger talks to proceed. “It doesn’t have to go on the ballot this year.”

The committee received a report on how the first year of a merger would affect some employees’ salaries and benefits and how the transition period would impact library costs. The report showed the libraries, which together have a current combined budget of $2.85 million, would need at least $3.54 million to operate in the first year of a merger.

Fuller described the report as a worst-case scenario.

“It’s pretty eye-opening in some of the aspects as to what it would look like. On the other hand, I think we’ve built a lot of one-time fees into this,” he said.

Ward County Commissioner and committee member Miranda Schuler raised concern that a proposed memorandum of understanding between the two governments lists 70% of costs as Minot’s responsibility and 30% as Ward County’s responsibility. In the first year of a merger, Minot’s costs will be relatively flat while Ward County’s costs would go up significantly.

“We’re stuck on a 3 percent cap. I’m not sure even how that would work,” Schuler said of the budget impact. “I understand there’s got to be some savings, but it’s a lot to ask the county residents to double their expense.”

Fuller said some of the merger costs wouldn’t need to be incurred right away, and those costs that are incurred can be better split between the city and county.

Another point in question is the building improvements required at the Minot library and whether that would remain the city’s cost or if the county would share those costs if a merged library is located there.

One item on which committee members agreed is that more information is needed.

A subcommittee was created to look further into merger costs and savings and to report back at the next committee meeting on June 16.