A lease for a village owned building that the Silver Lake Village Board would like to rent to the Community Library got its first extensive public discussion at Wednesday’s regular board meeting.
The item was on the agenda for discussion only and no vote was taken.
Village President Bruce Nopenz said the lease in hand Wednesday was a draft provided by the village attorney as a starting point for negotiations between the village and the library.
Trustees quickly locked in on one item in the proposal they feel needs to be changed — the rent.
The draft lease proposes $800 monthly. Several trustees felt that was too low, especially if the library uses all of the approximately 2,000 square foot building, a scenario all seemed to favor.
“I would just assume give the whole building to the library,” said Trustee Roger Johnson.
Village officials said the current quarters for the Silver Lake library branch on Cogswell Drive has a $900 monthly rent, for much less space than available on Second Street.
The former childcare facility on Second Street in Silver Lake was purchased by the village for $200,000 with the idea that the other Community Library member municipalities would help pay off the $250,000 loan ($50,000 for anticipated improvement). However, the other municipalities have all decided not to contribute. Since then, village officials have been pursuing renting the building to the library.
The joint library cannot own real estate, but can pay rent.
Nopenz said the draft would be forwarded to the library for their comments.
So when Riverview school came to the board to use rent the building for 3 months while the school is being worked on,,,, the board charged them $1,500. But the same board is going to allow the library to rent it at $800 a month? Please explain how that makes sense or is fair?
As a village I believe we currently and have for some time now paid a fee to the Community Library system. This was to cover ‘our’ part of the costs. If this is true then this should also be factored into the rental price.
The building is a drain on the community and needs to be sold. I know we will take a hit on it and the $80,000.00 lawyer fee the other board is responsible for. We have to clean up the old boards mess. The old board made the deal with the school. The old board told them 800.00 a month. The new board feels that is not enough. How is the library going to staff the building more than 3 hours a day like they do now? Does the traffic in the library per day say we need a bigger place and more hours? A study should be done.
I offer what might be a solution to this mess, as well as upgrading the level of service our rescue squad provides. Sell this building,get the monkey off our backs, so to speak. Transfer all the reading materials over to the SLRS building. Load up one of their reserve ambulances with books, to act as a rolling mobile library. Call it “Band Aids & Books”. A bold move, no doubt, but it provides a needed service to our citizens and enhances image of SLRS as well. A “win-win”.
Another solution would be to hitch a trailer up to the Fire Departments all terrain vehicle and sell books out of there? Maybe we could sell some of the Fire Department toys and use the money for something more useful?