Tim Ryan, tryan@wolfrivermedia.com
With the approval this week of the sale of the Shawano library branch to Shawano County, everything appears to be on track for a consolidated county library system to be in operation as of Jan. 1.
The sale of the Shawano building and parking lot for a token amount of $2 was approved by the plan commission on Tuesday and the Common Council on Wednesday.
The city had been contributing 20 percent to the operation of the Shawano branch, with the county picking up the rest of the cost.
City Administrator Brian Knapp said Shawano residents will still be contributing to its operation through general taxes.
But as of January, the building and its resources will be owned by the county, which has also agreed to allow continued use of the parking lot for overflow parking for downtown events.
“It does relieve the city of that maintenance headache and cost,” Knapp said.
The library system includes the main library in Shawano, branches in Birnamwood, Bonduel, Mattoon-Hutchins, Tigerton and Wittenberg, as well as a countywide delivery service.
The county has secured lease agreements for the other branches at a cost of $1 each.
The Shawano County Board signed off on consolidation plans in August.
Under the library system structure currently in place, Shawano County has been susceptible to charges from neighboring library systems whenever local patrons cross into a nearby county to borrow a book or use other resources. The situation occurs primarily in border communities such as Pulaski and Marion.
The county has received bills exceeding $100,000 a year for such cross-border borrowing.
Under state law, surrounding libraries would be prohibited from collecting such fees if Shawano County converts its patchwork library structure to a consolidated county-run system.
With the arrangement scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, the county will take responsibility for all library funding countywide and will manage all facilities through a county-appointed library board.
All library staff will become county employees, though many of them work limited hours.
The county will still have to make payments to out-of-county libraries for the next two years, but once those payments are out of the way, the estimated annual cost of operating the library system will be about $545,000, according to county Administrative Coordinator Brent Miller.