JILL SCHRAMM/MDN Ward County Library Director Kerrianne Boettcher, right, and Minot Public Library Director Josh Pikka, left, address the Ward County Commission about potential library collaboration on Tuesday, July 7.

Ward County commissioners gave their support on Tuesday, July 7, to continuing library merger discussions with the City of Minot, although any potential measure likely won’t be on a ballot until 2028.

Commissioner Ron Merritt, who serves on the merger committee, said the committee paused its work to let the county commission and city council know additional time will be needed to develop a ballot measure and get guidance on how to proceed. Initially, the goal was to develop a measure for this fall’s general election to allow voters to decide on merging Minot Public Library and Ward County Public Library.

“We’re running out of time. It’s not going to happen by a fall election,” Merritt said.

The Minot City Council hasn’t weighed in on continuing with the committee, which had been meeting since February.

“We did our due diligence and did a lot of looking at all of the different options,” Merritt said of the committee’s five months of work. “We did determine that there could be a potential cost savings of $2.5-$4 million over the next 10 years if we were to combine them together, but that was with some caveats.”

Commissioner Miranda Schuler, who also serves on the committee, said a countywide special election is an option but the cost could be $20,000-$25,000.

“I don’t know if it makes a lot of sense, because in the event that question was to fail, we’ve just utilized that money for nothing,” she said.

Commissioner Jim Rostad favored taking the time to develop a 2028 ballot measure rather than plan for a special election, which tends toward a lower voter turnout.

The library merger committee was made aware of potential cost savings from greater collaboration between the two libraries, even without a merger, although Merritt said a merger may be necessary to see the largest savings.

Ward County Library Director Kerrianne Boetcher and Minot Public Library Director Josh Pikka reported they have met to begin looking at service sharing that can reduce costs.

“We have looked at multiple options, including looking at staff to see if there’s a way to have staff sharing,” Boetcher said.

“We are looking at doing things where we can work together better,” Pikka added. “In doing so, we might get to a point where we can come back to our (government) bodies and come with an agreement.”

If a merger does make sense down the road, Pikka said, the libraries then would be in a better position to transition because they already have been sharing services.