BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN

INEZ — Confronted with dwindling reserves, rising costs at the Collier Center and pressure to raise tenant rents, the Martin County Library Board on Monday debated seeking a $100,000 bridge loan and moving the library back to its former building.

The meeting opened with an amendment to consider a Kentucky Association of Counties bridge loan. This short-term financing tool provides immediate cash flow until longer-term funding is secured.

Trustees then moved to revise the personnel manual by removing the section on employee health insurance, a change prompted by a bleak auditor’s report delivered Oct. 27.

The board spent much of the meeting discussing tenant rents in the Collier Center, with particular focus on Martin County Adult Education. Instructor Vicky Jude told trustees that MCAE has been in the facility since it opened, after a community survey conducted for community center construction funding identified the former adult learning center in the old jail as inadequate.

“They said, ‘We cannot believe you have your adult learning center in a building where they have buckets sitting in the windows catching the water, that you should have more pride in your community than to have them in a place like this, and this should be one of the first agencies that you put in this building,’” Jude said.

“We have been here since this building opened, and we offer a great service to this community. We pay more than what our lease says and we have paid it up until the end [Fiscal Year 2025].”

MCAE operates solely on grants.

“Our grants have been cut tremendously,” said Jude, “but we do provide a free service to the community.”

Jude said MCAE pays $100 per month for 1,656 square feet and provides books for the library’s children’s programs through its literacy grant.

“These people who get GEDS are getting jobs and that makes them productive members of our community,” she said.

She added that MCAE cannot increase its rent payments before the fiscal year ends.

Trustee Barry Webb noted that MCAE’s rate comes to about 5 cents per square foot.

“We cannot pull all the weight for somebody else,” he said. “At 5 cents a square foot, you are not paying the electric bill hardly.”

Jude asked whether MCAE’s prepaid rent would be reimbursed if the program is forced to vacate. Webb responded that the board is not trying to displace the program.

“We are not trying to run you off,” he said. “We are trying to see if you can come up with more money to keep the doors open.”

Jude said MCAE’s annual grant is about $65,000 for two salaries and that the state no longer pays for diplomas, forcing her to seek outside funding. She also argued that equalizing rent by square foot does not account for differences between rooms.

“Our room is not equal,” Jude said. “It is not equal to Martin County Water & Sanitation. They have access to the outdoors. It is not equal to Big Sandy Area Community Action. They have a private bathroom. They have windows all across the front. We have one little tiny window facing the hillside. This room here has a kitchen. So to me, every room in this building is not equal.”

Webb agreed that room value varies.

Jude added that MCAE’s location beneath the fitness center creates noise disruptions during testing.

“We are thankful that we are in this building and not setting buckets to catch water,” she said. “But the weights dropping down really startles people sometimes.”

Current tenant payments include $990.43 for Big Sandy Area Community Action’s 955 square feet; $701.98 for No Limits Fitness’s 2,278 square feet; $868.08 for Martin County Water’s 666 square feet; in-kind services from Soil Conservation for 121.8 square feet; $100 per month for Kentucky Homeplace’s 120 square feet; and $1,000 per month from Martin County Fiscal Court for unspecified space.

The board asked Jude to submit a written proposal before tabling the matter.

Trustees then discussed obtaining an appraisal and a realtor for the former library building, which is 10,904 square feet plus the parking lot.

“We may have to try to mortgage that, but let us move on to the next item,” trustee John Triplett said.

Triplett said he had spoken with Kelly Collins Milner, a KACO financial services officer and municipal adviser, who told him the library district qualifies to apply for a bridge loan through a KACO-recommended lender.

“I think we need to make an application and see if we can get a bridge loan,” Triplett said. “KACO, if we could get it, would be about three or four times quicker than trying to go through a commercial lender.”

Trustee Maurice Mills voiced strong concern.

“It scares me to death to think about a loan,” he said.

Triplett asked for authorization to apply for $100,000.

During the discussion, trustees sought input from Kentucky Libraries and Archives regional consultant Wendy O’Connor.

“I do not know of any libraries that have a bridge loan or need a bridge loan,” O’Connor said.

Triplett said costs tied to the Collier Center have pushed the library into crisis.

“This building has become a tremendous burden,” he said, noting that a failure of the air conditioning system last year wiped out the library’s savings. “We have to get into a situation where the money coming in matches the money going out. It is as simple as that. We do not have an option.”

Library director Angela Begley said the library needs to pay $35,000 in insurance this week, with three payrolls remaining before January.

“That is well over $100 right there,” Mills said.

“We have got people working who there is no money to pay,” Begley added.

Begley said the uncertainty has weighed heavily on staff.

“The smart thing to do would be to get this loan, take the money and move us back to the old building, and stay there and pay it off,” she said. “If we stay here, we are going to lose the library and the Collier Center. If we move back, we save the library, and the Collier Center can figure out a way to survive itself.”

Mills said, “Let us move on.”

Wendy O’Connor told trustees the library has been spending about $250,000 more than its tax revenues since moving to the Collier Center.

“The library had a healthy reserve when it moved here,” she said. “And that reserve is gone.”

Mills disputed that the reserve was ever “$1 million.” According to the auditor, the board ended Fiscal Year 2019 with $914,000. It ended Fiscal Year 2016 with $959,000, and in 2024 it ended with about $48,400.

The board took no action on the bridge loan.

Following an executive session, trustees voted to appoint Alicia Smith as interim library director effective Dec. 1, the date Angela Begley’s retirement begins.