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High Plains Library District officials spent Friday morning in court, waiting to find out whether they can keep operating in downtown Greeley.

The judge’s response: Yes, but they might have to pull the plug on it come April.

The library has a location in the Lincoln Park Annex, 919 7th St., but a hotel and conference center is slated to go on that block. Planners expect to break ground this summer. Library leaders are at the end of lease negotiations for another home, but an ongoing lawsuit is making it difficult for them to finish the process.

They want to move downtown’s library into the Goodwill Career Connection Center, 1012 11th St., and share the space. The plan is to sign off on the lease during a regular meeting Monday night.

But a group of local leaders who tried to overthrow the district’s board of directors in 2014 because of policy disagreements has been in litigation over the dispute since. They took the lease issue to court. The group contends the board, as it stands now, doesn’t have the authority to sign any contracts.

The district has two kinds of libraries: branches and members. High Plains has full control over branch libraries, such as the ones in Greeley. Member libraries, such as the one in Eaton, govern themselves. They have their own boards and budgets. High Plains offers members support services, such as information technology services and cataloging.

Disgruntled leaders from communities with member libraries banded with the Board of Weld County Commissioners in an attempt to oust all of the library board’s members, which landed both sides in court. While trying to decide how to handle the situation, a judge filed a preliminary injunction, which froze the library board members in their positions but removed their ability to make policy decisions without each member library’s permission.

The Goodwill lease would last for a year, with an option to renew on a monthly basis after that, said High Plains Executive Director Janine Reid. The library would get more than 7,500 square feet of space to itself for book storage, computer stations and meeting space. It would share 330 square feet of space with Goodwill. This covers common areas, such as bathrooms and a staff work area.

The rent would be $4,130 per month, and the library district would pay 80 percent of the costs for utilities and snow removal.

“The defendants, as expected because it’s happened every other time, … objected,” Reid said.

Instead of signing off on the lease, the members decided to take the issue back to Weld District Court. The judge assigned to the case recently changed, Reid said. The community leaders and their attorneys resurfaced a dispute the previous judge already had settled: whether the board members deserved to be ousted.

He required a separate motion to decide on that, and scheduled that hearing for April 1. He signed off on district officials’ ability to sign the lease – somewhat.

The lease and the other two actions the library board members want to take during Monday’s meeting are contingent on the April hearing’s result. High Plains officials can sign the lease Monday, but if the judge rules in April they didn’t really have the authority, they’ll have to cancel it.

Signing a lease then canceling it would waste some money. Before April, the district would have to pay to get more Internet lines running to the location. But that’s not library officials’ main concern.

“If worst came to worst, we’d have to cancel the Comcast order,” Reid said. “The worst thing that can happen is we’re not able to sign a lease at all … and we have no place to go.”
https://www.greeleytribune.com/2016/03/19/library-district-faces-legal-battle-over-lease-in-downtown-greeley/
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