Pennington County residents likely won't have to pay a hefty fee to check out books from the Rapid City Public Library next year.

The library board voted Wednesday to approve a new long-term contract with the county. Under the new agreement, the county will pay the library $351,750 in quarterly installments in 2008, $411,193 in 2009, $427,641 in 2010 and 14.5 percent of the library's operational costs for all subsequent years.

"It doesn't do all of the things we wanted when we started on this process, but it does get us into a contract that allows the county a step to get into a formula-based contract in the future," library board member Jim Olson said. "I think it's a reasonable effort at trying to resolve a very difficult problem."

The county and the city library had been at odds since the library decided in September not to renew its contract to provide library services to county residents who live outside city limits.

With no contract, county residents faced paying up to $70 annually to get a Rapid City library card, necessary to access a variety of library services, including book check-out.

The county hasn't officially approved, but Commissioner Jim Kjerstad said in a telephone interview he believes the commission will act favorably on the agreement when it meets next Tuesday.

Olson credited the hard work of the library administrators, the negotiating committee, representatives of the county, Rapid City area schools and the mayor's office in working out the agreement.

School officials helped broker meetings between the library and county over the past several weeks, which eventually led to an agreement.

Olson said the school district had an interest in ensuring young people have access to the library. It also helped that the city and school district are partnering on a satellite library at General Beadle Elementary School starting next year.

"We have begun a relationship with the school district with General Beadle that created some lines of communication that may not have been there a few years ago," Olson said.

Either party can terminate the agreement with 60 days' written notice, a vote of rural county residents to discontinue library services, referral and disapproval of any opt-out resolution, and the failure of the county to budget for library services.

The agreement also calls for the library to provide the county with quarterly reports about how much rural residents use library services, without breaching the privacy of cardholders. The county has long wanted information about the cumulative amount of material checked out by county residents, but library officials balked because of confidentiality concerns.

The involvement of the school district, particularly Superintendent Peter Wharton, was key in resurrecting contract negotiations, library officials said.

"I think the school district was a good resource in bringing folks back to the table," library director Greta Chapman said.

Library board chairman Monte Loos agreed, saying Chapman and Wharton especially deserve credit in helping get talks off of dead center.

"We felt it was important to get an ongoing contract, because these continuing negotiating sessions are not really what you want to look forward to," Loos said. "It really got to the point where we got a contract both sides can live with."

Contact Scott Aust at 394-8415 or scott.aust@rapidcityjournal.com