Hennessey’s Friends of the Library planned to put a storage barn at the south end of the public library. The group wanted it to hold supplies for its annual Pumpkin Patch, but the building permit was denied.

That’s what Pat Vaverka told Hennessey town trustees at the board’s Tuesday, July 9, meeting.

Vaverka handed out copies of his permit application, a photo of the site and FOL’s April 19 purchase order with Sturdi-Bilt of Hutchison, Kan. It shows a $1,000 deposit on an 8-foot by 12-foot red storage barn with a total price of $4,318.66.

Trustee Bert Gritz responded to the complaint and said Vaverka’s application “didn’t show the entire placement site.”

The site for that storage structure was later referred to as “Main St. South of the library to the bicycle rack, and onto an existing concrete pad.”

There was a place on the building permit form for the date, but none was listed on FOL’s copy.

The permit copy at Town Hall is also not dated, Office Manager Shelley Burch said in response to the KT&FP reporter’s question submitted Thursday, July 18.

Permit Was Approved Earlier with Provisions

In another Thursday afternoon callback, Burch said she’d just talked with Building Inspector David Treanor.

He told her “the permit was never turned down, but was approved with two needed provisions: a map with the location of the building and approval from the town board because it’s on town-owned property.”

Burch said Treanor also told her his records showed that he was emailed a copy of the permit request on April 24.

Treanor told the KT&FP the day after the board’s July 9 meeting that he was “told that morning to go ahead and approve it,” and he did.

The KT&FP reporter also asked Treanor if Friends of the Library is being charged for the permit, and if so, how much?

“No charge to FOL,” Treanor said, “and it’s usual to waive permit fees for the fire department and others.”

In addition to Vaverka, other FOL members at the July 9 town board meeting were Jan Lichtenburg and Ann and Tim Taylor. Ann Taylor is currently the president of the town’s five-member Library Board and she is also a past president of FOL.

After last week’s town meeting Tim Taylor said he’d understood there had been miscommunications in the past about the project and was glad they’d all worked out.

That way he won’t have to climb up the library’s stairs to get supplies for the Pumpkin Patch, or other FOL fundraisers, he said.

Agenda Hiccup

Trustee David Jones said during last week’s meeting there were two agenda items attributed to him. He said he’d only asked for one item, but it was turned into two.

One of those errors was the building permit issue. The other was “Discussion with possible action concerning the mowing, trimming and upkeep of the outside of the Town Library.”

Jones said he hadn’t expected any action/vote, but only discussion on that matter.

During discussion, Jones also asked, to make it clear, that the Friends of the Library is a non-profit organization that supports the town’s library.

All four trustees attended the July 9 meeting: Acting Mayor/Vice Mayor Harold Shaw, Randy Bohnstedt, Gritz and Jones.