CDA Library hours to change

COEUR d’ALENE — The Coeur d’Alene Public Library is open until 8 p.m. Monday to Thursday. But in the last hour, it has few visitors.

So far in January through Wednesday, just 101 people stopped in, and only four at the children’s library, between 7 and 8 p.m.

“People are just not using us at the time,” said Michael Priest, library director, during a board of trustees meeting Wednesday.

Mornings are a different story, with more people stopping in.

Priest said to capitalize on that, library hours are proposed to change to 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 10 to 5 on Saturdays. Sundays would remain noon to 5 p.m.

Priest said cutting that last hour on Saturdays, a slow one in terms of visitor usage, would give the library more flexibility the rest of the week.

The change will increase the total hours the library is open each week from 61 to 62.

Trustees unanimously approved the proposal, which will take effect in April.

“Makes sense to me,” said trustee Steve McCrea. "Might as well be open more on peak hours.”

Trustee Ann Smart agreed and said opening earlier may be more conducive for parents who take kids to school and then stop by the library.

Board chair Katie Sayler requested they keep attendance data for April through July to see how the hour changes affect usage. That was also approved.

The board also chatted about other issues, including:

• Trustees said they plan to continue their hybrid meetings — at least one trustee at the Library Meeting Room and the rest joining in via Zoom — until May 1.

"Hopefully we’ll have a healthier world by then,” Sayler said.

The board held Zoom meetings for health reasons after the coronavirus pandemic began. But it learned earlier this month its Zoom-only meetings from July 29, 2020, to Dec. 1, 2021, violated open meeting laws.

It met Jan. 12, with Trustee Fay Sweney present and the rest on Zoom, to approve a motion to make all action items at those meetings null and void. It then approved another motion to approve those same action items.

• Kara Claridge, who initially questioned the legality of the Zoom-only meetings and has expressed concerns about some material that’s available in the children’s library, spoke during the public comment period Wednesday and requested email addresses of board members.

Sayler declined the request. She told Claridge she could email Priest, who in turn would forward her emails to board members.

Claridge read from the library’s website regarding trustees that said, “The board works for the citizens and stakeholders of the city, and community input can assist the board in meeting the challenge of continuous improvement.” 

Claridge said she has had difficulty contacting trustees, but Sayler said she has never been prevented from contacting Priest.

“Anything I have to say goes through Michael?” Claridge asked.

“That would be the preferred method of communication,” Sayler said.

Sayler said trustees would be glad to arrange a time to meet a concerned citizen at the library.

The exchange turned a bit testy before Claridge asked if she had time to move on to other issues.

“No, you used up your time,” Sayler said, to which Claridge said, “OK. Thank you for treating me very rudely.”

• A woman named Angela said she is the mother of a transgender man and thanked the board for having materials about transgender issues. She said her son didn’t have access to such information growing up in a small town.

“I’m thrilled this library is willing to provide it,” she said.

Ralph Shay said he's against censoring books. He said it's up to parents to determine what is appropriate for their children.

"My hope is we do not practice censoring of any kind,” he said.