Library to hold meetings on expansion plans
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| Bonners Ferry artist and designer Robert Bissett's rendition of the possible future of the Boundary County Library if voters approve "the People's University" in May. |
It's an ambitious proposal carrying an $8-million price tag, but "The People's University," as library director Sandy Ashworth calls it, would pull together a plethora of services and educational resources under one three-story roof.
It would provide new space for the U of I Boundary County Extension Office, expand educational opportunities by housing the North Idaho College Bonners Ferry campus, offering professional and technical education, research and development, business support services and more. A Business Development Center and the Boundary Economic Development Council Office, offering entrepreneurial assistance, would form a bridge between education and the local workplace.
What's even more exciting is the inclusion of Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Bits and Atoms Fab(rication) Lab.
CBA was launched by a National Science Foundation award in 2001 to create a unique digital fabrication facility that gathers tools across disciplines and length scales for making and measuring things. These include electron microscopes and focused ion beam probes for nanostructures, laser micromachining and X-ray microtomography for microstructures, and multi-axis machining and 3D printing for macrostructures. These are supported by instrumentation for processing and characterizing materials and devices. CBA's tools are available around the clock for its users working on projects that integrate these capabilities.
According to Ashworth, MIT has extended the Boundary County Library an invitation to establish a FAB Lab right here in Bonners Ferry, bringing cutting edge technology and innovation that can be used for local applications.
Far from being a simple library, approval of a levy override allowing an increase in tax funding of $100,000 per year, and a general obligation bond of up to $8-million over 30 years to fund the project.
If approved the USDA will fund the project with a 30-year Rural Development loan at 4.374 percent interest.
While it sounds like pie-in-the-sky to many, county taxpayers would not be paying that full amount, as much of the cost would be funded by grants the library board has obtained or will apply for.
"These ideas pull together a lot of things the county needs in one place," Ashworth said. "By making this more than a library, we can go after additional funding; block grants and economic development grants, to save taxpayer dollars."
By guaranteeing, with the bond, that the facility can be finished once it's started, the door opens for a wide array of outside funding sources that will make a world-class facility possible on a budget the community can afford.
The Boundary County Library Board will host an intense series of weekly public meetings beginning Monday, April 14, and continuing through Monday, May 19, to provide county residents ample opportunity to learn all the details of the proposed expansion project and answer the myriad questions taxpayers have.
Each meeting will cover the history and rationale of the project, the details of the estimated project budget, a review of the costs to local taxpayers and the strategic plan for securing other funding to offset construction costs and reduce local property tax levies.
Meetings will be held at 10 a.m., 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. April 14, 21, 25 and 28 and May 2, 5, 9, 12, 16 and 19. Saturday meetings will be held at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. May 2, 10 and 17.
Each meeting will be held at the library in the downstairs meeting room.
To find out more about the project or the meetings, call the library at (208) 267-3750.