While moving ahead with plans for a new Flathead County Library in Kalispell, a wrench has been thrown into the fundraising efforts. At their meeting last month, the Library Board essentially fired their fundraising arm, the Flathead Library Foundation. Now, we learn that their Executive Director Sara Busse has resigned.
As head of the foundation, Busse told the Library Board that it would be next to impossible to raise the funds — upwards of $40-million –without 100% support from the Board. Board members didn’t see that as germane to the the project, but foundation leadership wondered if big-money donors would withdraw their support, seeing the lack of support from the Board.
Sara was instrumental in raising the funds to relocate and build out the new Bigfork branch of the Library. The foundation, whose only purpose is to raise funds for the Flathead County Library system, hasn’t announced it future plans and so at this point, there is no capital campaign for the new library project.
So, where does the project go from here? A letter of intent offers $2.5-million for the property, but the new owner of the Kalispell Center Mall, Parkline Properties, is firm in their counter-offer of $3-million. If the deal goes through, the Library has 36 months to begin construction.
