As libraries across the state prepare to compete for $12.6 million, Park County officials are hoping to secure most of the pot to expand the Powell Library.

The plan is to ask for $10 million, “and we hope for the best,” said Park County Library Board Vice Chairman Geoff Baumann.

“We feel like we are right ahead of the line because we’ve been working on this so long,” Baumann told the Powell City Council last week.

First, however, the board must do some hustling. After developing the grant program over the past couple of years, the Wyoming State Library announced the details on Aug. 24, with applications due Oct. 9.

“All of sudden we’re in a big hurry here,” Baumann said.

To bolster the library board’s application, he asked the council to quickly provide three things: a letter of support; a “good faith investment” of $10,000; and an extended lease for the Powell Library, which is owned and operated by the county but sits on city-owned land.

The current lease is due to expire in roughly a decade, Baumann said, and without an extension, “we’re kind of dead in the water” on the grant application.

Council members voted unanimously to have the city attorney begin drafting a new 99-year lease for the library. They deferred action on the other two requests, which had all been added to the Sept. 5 agenda at the last minute.

Before considering any financial support, Mayor John Wetzel said he wanted to “go through a full public meeting that’s been advertised, to make that official.”

The library board is seeking a grant from the Wyoming Library Multi-Purpose Community Facility Program. It’s funded with dollars from the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), one of the large spending bills Congress passed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, all of the grant applications “must be viewed through that lens,” Wyoming State Librarian Jamie Markus said on a recent conference call with libraries around the state.

“These projects must directly enable work, education and health monitoring and … it must enable all three,” Markus said, and “you must be clear on how this project was made apparent by, exacerbated, or results from the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Hypothetical examples given during the meeting included privacy booths for telehealth or adding space for computers.

In Powell, library leaders are hoping to significantly expand the facility, as a 2019 needs assessment found it’s “totally inadequate” for the growing Powell community.

In 2021, the Park County Library Foundation paid for GSG Architecture to design an expansion, but the library board recently decided to effectively restart the process and hired Johnston Architects of Seattle. Two architects with the library-focused firm visited the Powell Library last week and they’re due to submit preliminary sketches soon that can be submitted with the grant application, Baumann said.

“We're paying them a considerable amount to give us initial ideas,” he told the council, adding that it shows the level of the commitment to making the expansion a reality.

While there are no definite plans at the moment, Baumann noted they have the needs assessment and an engineering survey in hand.

“We’re looking good for getting a substantial amount of money,” he told the council.

All of the state’s public libraries — including those at community colleges and the University of Wyoming — are eligible for the new state library funds, meaning there could be stiff competition.

Applicants can seek as little as $250,000 or as much as the entire $12.6 million pot. They also have the option of making their ideal grant request and listing a smaller, alternative request if full funding isn’t available. Park County Library Director Karen Horner indicated on the call that her board may go that route.

Markus cautioned that state library officials “don’t want letters of support.”

“We don’t want to hear from your mayor, we don’t want to hear from a state senator. We don’t care,” he said. Rather, Markus said they want “letters of partnership,” in which organizations or individuals pledge to “do something as a result of the project” — such as providing health care training or workforce training in a new space.

He said it could take the state until the end of the year to work through its multi-level review process. 

The Powell City Council plans to take up the requests for funding and a supportive letter at an upcoming meeting.