The Eudora City Commission approved on Monday an interlocal agreement with Eudora Township that will maintain the current funding for the Eudora Township Library.

The agreement corrects an issue that should have been addressed when the city changed in 2011 from a city of the third class to one of the second class. With that change, the township lost its taxing authority within the city limits but continued to levy 4 mills of taxes in the city for the library’s annual operations.

The approved agreement, which is to be renewed annually, calls for the city to contract library services from the township. It also commits the city and township to establish the same mill levy to support the library. This year that rate is again 4 mills.

The agreement also stipulates that the five-member library board will continue to have three representatives from the city and two from the township.

Eudora City Manager Barack Matite said the agreement does not provide a means for the township to levy property taxes to retire bond debt within the city. A committee in support of the new library is currently conducting a capital campaign to raise as much money as possible to help with the cost of building a new $3 million library in Eudora, but it is assumed voters will be asked to approve a bond issue to help with that expense.

Matite said Michael Braa, library board president, would consult with representatives from the Northeast Kansas Library System on how the question of retiring bonded debt in the city and township could be resolved.

In other business, the commission:

• Received an update on the Eudora Community Museum from Ben Terwilliger, Eudora Area Historical Society executive director. Terwilliger said 1,300 people visited the museum from June 24 to Aug. 6 to view the traveling Smithsonian exhibit “Water/Ways.” That equaled the number of visitors the museum had in 2016, he said.

The museum’s major project for 2018 will be a new professionally designed main exhibit that will tell the history of Eudora from its beginning to the present day, Terwilliger said.

• Approved changes to the city’s downtown business grant program that increases the amount of matching funds available to an applicant from $5,000 to $7,500 and extends the Main Street corridor in which businesses can apply for the grant north to the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad tracks.