A court dispute between the city of Poplar Bluff and the Poplar Bluff Municipal Library District could end with a new agreement proposed Monday.
Poplar Bluff City Council members are expected to vote April 5 on a proposal that would deed the Main Street library facility to the district for a payment of $200,000.
Council members voted 6-1 Monday to move the item to their next voting session. Ward 2 council member Ed DeGaris cast the sole “no” vote.
Ward 1 council member Lisa Armes Parson made the motion to turn the deed over to the library district pending two payments of $100,000 each.
“I just think it’s the right thing to do and just move on, get this court thing stopped… because we’re really, we’re all just the city. I just hate to see discord,” Parson said.
DeGaris said he would have liked to have another workshop meeting on the matter before voting.
“I don’t think we should just give our assets away,” he said. “As far as I know, we don’t have an appraisal on the building. I just don’t think we should give away something the citizen’s have paid for for so many years.”
Library Director Sue Crites Szostak said she was in favor of the measure, but she did not know Monday evening what the next action would need to be by the library’s board.
Szostak did note that she felt like the library district had paid for the property, and had been paying for it since 1936. The district has also put $800,000 into the Main Street facility since 2013 alone, she said, with no contributions from the city.
Parson said she supported turning the property over to the library because of the history that had been presented to the council regarding how it and the building have been paid for.
Assistant library director Shannon Midyett shared with the council Monday that the library moved five times in the first few years it was open, renting various properties.
“I really think that was the impetus behind the board at the time in the 30s looking for a permanent home for the library. And it found that by getting a secured federal grant, that was FDR New Deal money, the Public Works Administration,” Midyett explained. “And the grant paid for 45% of the building for the library at that time. To pay for the rest of the building, the board went out and asked the council to put a bond issue before the voters and that bond issue passed with an overwhelming 93% majority.”
A property tax had been established for the library in 1917, which was used to pay for the bonds, she said.
“Right now, the library is what’s known as a municipal library district under state law. That means it is an autonomous political subdivision, operating under the state of Missouri,” Midyett explained. “In the 30s, the library didn’t have that kind of authority under the state law. And I feel like, at that time, that’s the reason why the original structure was originally deeded to the city of Poplar Bluff rather than to the library.”
The former Hendrickson clinic property was purchased in the early 1990s using the city’s capital improvement fund. The clinic was found to be structurally unsound and demolished, at which point the library building was expanded.
“Part of the ballot language actually reads, that money would be used to renovate the public library. And that’s how you see the library as it stands today,” Midyett said.
Another renovation was done in 2008, using a private $1 million donation from the late Kay Porter, along with an additional $150,000 in private donations.
“So we think that most of the structure as it stands today was actually paid for, it can be traced back to the library property tax, the library sales tax, and then have it all proven some money dedicated by the voters to the library, and private donations,” Midyett said.
Library officials have said they paid almost $500,000 to the city following a “gentleman’s agreement” to transfer the title.
The 2014 memorandum of understanding set five-year payments from the library district to the city in return for money that supplemented the district between 2008-2012, according to the document.
Former city manager Mark Massingham was quoted in the newspaper saying the property would be transferred at the conclusion of those payments, Szostak said.
The June 3, 2014, article, stated, “A proposed lease agreement between the city and the library also was discussed. Massingham said the library will sign a five-year lease for $1 per year.
‘Then we will transfer the building and parking lot to the library,’ Massingham said.”
The library district filed suit in 2018 against the city, seeking the property title. The case went to court after the council at the time declined to transfer the property, noting concerns that the city may want to use the property as collateral for future projects.