It's back to the drawing board for plans to locate a joint city/county/school library at Western Dakota Technical Institute.

Representatives from Pennington County, WDTI and the Rapid City School District met Thursday to form a task force that will spend the summer exploring just how much space and what services would be necessary in a jointly operated library. The Rapid City Public Library will join in future discussions, according to Rick Gray, interim president of WDTI.

Locating a shared-use library at the technical school surfaced as a possibility last year when contract negotiations between the county and the city broke down. The county and Rapid City Public Library's board reached agreement on a new contract last December after months of negotiation.

Joining forces to expand the library at WDTI and provide additional library services for county residents at the same time was suggested by Rapid City superintendent of schools Peter Wharton. Wharton was instrumental in bringing city library and county officials back to the negotiating table last fall.

"This is a good concept," Wharton said Thursday. "A lot of people would benefit."

But the idea wasn't good enough to win approval from the state Board of Education this spring. WDTI and school district officials asked the board for bonding authority for a 30,000-square-foot addition to the Mickelson Building that would have included a 17,000-square-foot library.

Secretary of Education Rick Melmer advised the board not to approve the $5.8 million project.

In an April 4 e-mail to the board of education, Melmer noted that "further discussion is needed to explore the joint funding" of the project.

Task force members will spend the summer trying to catalog specifics on the potential for library usage by the public and students and determining a formula for sharing the costs on the project.

Members of the task force include Commissioners Brenda Young and Jim Kjerstad, Auditor Julie Pearson, Rapid City School Board President Sheryl Kirkeby, school district director of support services Mike Kenton, WDTI librarian Deb Arne and Gray.

Contact Andrea Cook at 394-8423 or andrea.cook@rapidcityjournal.com