Efforts to buy the building owned by the Roper family located at 37116 Main Street as a new location for the Burney Branch of the Shasta County Public Library System are moving forward. An appraisal of the building, funded by Friends of the Intermountain Library (FOIL), Keith Roper, and the City of Redding is expected to be completed by July 19. A formal appraisal is the first step in opening negotiations to purchase the property.
Last September, FOIL presented the Shasta County Board of Supervisors a detailed plan for purchase and improvement of the Roper Building. On September 12, representatives from FOIL attended a Regular County Board Meeting to request the release of $400,000 which had been set aside from the Hatchet Ridge Wind Project Grant for the purchase of a new library building in Burney.
At that meeting, presentations were made by members of FOIL, as well as Peggy O’Lea, from the Shasta Library Foundation, Kimberly Ross, the chair of the Library Advisory Committee, Kim Neimer, Community Services Director for the City of Redding who oversees Shasta County Public Library contracts and works Closely with the Library Advisory Committee, and Laura Burnett, representing Library Systems and Services which provides the staff and the librarians in all three branches of the Shasta County Public Library System. All of the speakers were supportive of FOIL’s plan to obtain the new building and upgrade information services for the Intermountain Area.
After the presentations, there was some discussion and a motion was passed to make the agenda item an action item at a future board meeting.
Since that time FOIL has met with the County Auditor and County Supervisor Mary Rickert and FOIL has continued to revise and update their plan.
On June 19. FOIL President Pat Pell and Member at Large Fran Collier met with Shasta County Public Works Director Pat Minturn, Supervisor Rickert and Kim Neimer.
The appraisal was announced and discussed at that meeting as a first step toward further discussions and negotiations with the County.
The 2018 FOIL board consists of Pat Pell, President; Mary Barr, Vice President; Charla Connelley, Secretary; Linda Murray, Treasurer; and Fran Collier, Adele Boster, and Jan Fensler, Members at Large.
Pit River Country 