has no more room. In fact, the library space is so limited it can no longer hold all of its books.
"We don’t have enough room for (book) collections," Jennie Cisna Mills, Shorewood-Troy Library Director said. "We are getting rid of books that could still be used to make room for new books."
The library also is lacking in office space for staff, meeting space for the library and community and in electrical outlets for patrons using cell phones, laptops or tablet devices that need to be charged.
The current building sits on 1.38 acres.
"There isn’t any room to expand; even if we tore this building down, there wouldn’t be any room to expand or for parking," Mills said.
So, the library is considering buying land and building a new facility. But, they want input from the community.
They held their first focus groups on April 14.
"They are really in favor of it," Mills said of attendees. "They were appreciative of having a larger facility."
The library has two more days set aside for residents to weigh in. At 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m., April 28 and May 5, you can voice your opinion. You must call the library and register for a time and date.
What Will it Cost?
If the library decides to move forward, they have identified the area near Shorewood Village Hall as the location of a future facility. They would like to purchase about five acres. They cannot identify a cost at this point because that would be part of the negotiations. However, they have set aside $300,000 in reserves and hope to be approved for and use a $200,000 grant toward the purchase.
That, however, would only pay for the land. To build a new facility, the library would have to go to referendum.
"We would probably do referendum fairly soon after that," Mills said. "There is always the chance that it would fail and we do need a new building."
Editor's Note: We misspelled the name of the library director. It has since been corrected. We regret the error.
Geting an architect already, spending taxpayers money on land and plans before an April referendum?, without asking the taxpayers if its ok tho spend 1mil or so before you even have approval? This is whats wrong with government, they dont even ask the taxpayers opinion. The library board appears to be counting on everybody to be ignorant and unaware when it comes up in April. Just like the city hall and the fire barn was adequate for 40 years, but city hall and the fire board had our money burning a hole in their pocket, so they stick it in everybodys arse, just like the library board. The library serves 19k people? Yeah, on paper I suppose, but the real percentage of the 19k served is significantly less. Guess the library board is envious of jowest's new library, and feels the need to compete, with my money. I pay too much in property tax already, the state and the fed is soon to stick it to me even more. When is it that governing bodies start to care about the taxpayer? When they move out of this state.