KAYSVILLE -- Kaysville City will pay for Kaysville library employees to attend training to enhance their skills and increase the likelihood they will qualify for positions with Davis County by the time the planned merger occurs on July 1, 2006. The council voted Tuesday evening to fund the training for those employees who agree they will not obstruct the process of the merger by striking or by causing other disruption. Although the city has committed to providing training for current library employees from the inception of the merger, the recent actions of some employees, including the one-day strike, July 6, the day after the council agreed to the merger, did cause some concern among council members whether they should fund such training.

"You don't want to pay for training for someone who is going to be a clog in the wheel rather than make the transition smooth," said Council member Christopher Snell.

Employees of the city li-brary have been at the center of the controversy involving the merger, and the Davis County library board has been very forthright in maintaining that Kaysville library's employees will be required to qualify for positions with the county as would any other applicant.

The city and the library will also be required to find temporary help, whether through temporary employees or volunteers, to maintain the daily operations of the library while the employees attend the training session, it was noted Tues-day night.

Council member John Mc-Cleary reported to the city council that the library has been progressing and actively working to comply with the requirements and prepare the library for the merger with the county.

"I think that people are working hard to make this as smooth as possible," said McCleary. In addition to weeding out more than 4,000 books from the city's collection, li-brary employees have been using Blood Fund endowment money to aggressively purchase books to replenish the collection.

The city has been working in conjunction with the county throughout this process to ensure that those books being discarded and those purchased meet the requirements of the county.

"I think that they are giving the best service they can to the residents right now," said Mc-Cleary.

He also reported that the Kaysville library board is seeking to fill three vacancies. The available positions were vacated within the past few months for various reasons, some of which were related to the merger. Although the board can have up to nine members, it has chosen to operate with seven until the time of the merger.

The council also discussed how and when it will meet the requirements of the county to bring the current building into compliance with ADA standards. All remodeling and repairs, both those that are the responsibility of the city and those of the county, will be tentatively scheduled to occur at the same time. Plans to close the library for the entire month of July 2006, to accomplish those modifications, are in the works.

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