By Kyle Siegel
Staff writer
Last week, Sedalia city officials found and studied an ordinance from 1977 concerning the Sedalia Public Library, and who is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the historic building.
According to City Administrator Gary Edwards, “This is an ordinance that dates back to 1977. That was the formation of the current library organization, and it formed the independent library board.
“The ordinance was agreed upon at that time by both parties,” Edwards said.
Edwards added, “Does that mean that we are backing out completely? No, that just means we have to look at it. We don’t know yet. This is something that we are reviewing now.”
According to Edwards and the ordinance, “Part of the agreement is that they would be responsible for maintenance. It does not go into specific detail,” Edwards said.
Recently the Sedalia Public Library was closed in order to perform emergency repairs to the southwest corner of the library, believed to be caused after extreme drought conditions caused the clay beneath the library structure to shrink.
This caused the building to settle and began to form cracks from the foundation to the top of the building.
“Don’t take this as the city backing out,” Edwards said.
“To what degree we will help, it is too early to say. We don’t even have final repair numbers yet,” he added.
“I have heard the council say that they didn’t want that building to close,” Edwards said.
The News-Journal also spoke with the Sedalia Public Library Executive Director Pam Hunter about the ordinance.
“I had a chance to read it recently, and basically it is just copying library laws. It is in the Missouri state statutes. The city basically put it into ordinance form.
“They took what was already written and put it into an ordinance,” Hunter said.
Hunter was asked when the temporary repairs will be finished, and when the library should reopen.
“I meet with the structural engineer on Wednesday, and he will evaluate if the bracing is adequate. If it is, the library should be back open on Thursday,” Hunter said.
She added, “The west wing will still be closed. We will have to look at the work done and see if it will be safe.”
“We want to get the problem fixed. We are still in negotiations on how we are going to finance it. We are going to come up with a solution,” Hunter said. Photos by Randy Kirby, Sedalia News Journal.
