Northern Wyoming News - Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years

WORLAND – The Washakie County Commissioners unveiled an official design for the Washakie County Library during a public comment session at their regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 4.

The proposed design would include space for the Worland-Ten Sleep Chamber of Commerce in the front of the building, along with offices for the chamber and Washakie County Youth Alternatives and the Washakie County Prevention Specialist office and meeting spaces upstairs.

The plans for the proposed library have been in development since September when the county purchased the Kennedy Ace Hardware building at 801 Big Horn Ave.

According to Chairmen Fred Frandson, the cost for construction and remodeling will be just above $2.2 million without the cost of the building, with the commissioners applying for a $500,000 2020 Business Ready Community Enhancement Grant through the Wyoming Business Council (WBC) in order to help make this design a reality.

A time frame for the grant includes an application being submitted prior to Feb. 17 to the regional director, which the commissioners did approve just after the public hearing. The application will then be passed on to the state director on March 1, and the WBC board will meet on May 7.

If it is approved there, then it will move to the State Loan and Investment Board (SLIB) in the middle of June, with the money becoming available in August if it is approved by the SLIB.

One question that was brought up concerning this grant was whether the current design was dependent upon receiving the grant from the WBC. In short, Frandson responded with "yes."

"This design has been reviewed over with the library board and by a committee," Frandson said. "We are very diligent on keeping the taxpayers library money that was raised for this separate from the second floor, if we do not get the grant then that design will change, and that means we will probably not get a second floor."

Ron Harvey, a member of the Board of Directors for the WBC came to offer his opinion on the matter, and he said much of it would be dependent on the budget the WBC is provided once the budget session closes for the Legislature.

Amanda Weaver asked a question to the commissioners regarding why the chamber would be located in the front of the building.

"For the Chamber of Commerce, it needs to be out front where people can see it, I know it is not a county entity, but it is a part of our community," Frandson said. "The county had to demolish their old building because of black mold, so basically the county took away their home, and this is one way that we gave back in getting them back into an area that is also putting them on main street, enhancing the community."

According to Frandson, a lease agreement would be put in place for the chamber if the grant would be rewarded to the county, and a Memorandum of Understanding has been sent to the chamber and the Washakie Development Association regarding a future agreement.

"The chamber will have no access to the library itself," Frandson said. Showing that the chamber will have its own walled off area in the front of the building facing Big Horn Ave, and stairs for access to the second floor but it would be in its own separate little area from the library itself.

Other questions that were brought forward by the more than a dozen attendees for the meeting concerned the square footage of the new library, the amount of the $1 million donation from Mike Healy that will be used for the library as opposed to the upstairs renovation, accessibility to the upstairs and the total funding that there currently is for the design.

The new library would be around 6,000 feet larger in square footage compared to the old building, and in a rough estimate at the time Frandson said that 80% of the donation would go toward the library.

An elevator is in the plans for the renovations for access to the upper floor.

The current funding for the building according to Frandson and the commissioners is $525,600 to purchase the building, $539,065 to remodel, the private donation from Healy totaled $1,009,000 and the Washakie County General Fund is $212,647.

The plan for the old library is to put the building on the market and sell it, and there is one prospective buyer at the moment that Frandson said he will not name out of fairness to the potential buyer.

No other department updates were provided during the regularly scheduled meeting due to the inclement weather or illness.

Please visit the Northern Wyoming News website at wyodaily.com to see a full floor plan for the new library.