YACHATS – The Yachats Library Commission is considering a change of direction in its quest to hire someone to oversee operations at the city’s all-volunteer operation.
The commission had received council permission this winter to recruit a part-time employee with a master’s degree in library science in order to meet a requirement to be a member of the state of Oregon’s library system. But a local candidate for that position had a change of mind, and no one applied for the job.
The position is budgeted for quarter-time and $15,000 a year.
The commission is now revising the job description to make it a “library administrator” while still keeping active the original job description in case anyone else might be interested, said commission chair David Rivinus.
“What we really need is for someone to do the bookkeeping and organizational work,” he said.
The commission believes the Yachats Library can get an exception for the state’s librarian requirement, something it learned other small libraries have done.
Rivinus hopes to schedule a special meeting in August – the group normally meets every three months – to consider approving a new job description and begin getting the word out to residents of the Yachats-Waldport area who may be interested in the position.
Rivinus said volunteer librarians Rose Valentine, Diane Allen and Jane Shay have committed to staying on until an administrator is hired.
The commission has also appointed a five-member committee to interview two of the four construction companies which responded to a request for proposals to remodel and expand the library on West Seventh Street. An interior designer hired by the city has revised initial plans for the interior of the new building after meeting with volunteers and patrons.
The company selected by the subcommittee will take those designs and incorporate them into its design and cost estimate for the new building.
The commission wants a 1,200-square-foot addition and remodel of the existing 2,327-square-foot 48-year-old building.
The city and Friends of the Yachats Library have bequests from two estates totaling $300,000. The Library Commission intends to contract with an experienced library fundraiser to seek grants to help pay for the rest of the expansion.
An expansion has been in the works for at least three years, but stalled in 2021 when the commission decided to slow its efforts because of the skyrocketing price of materials and the departure of city staff.