Pine Lake board mulls town’s role in library district

The Pine Lake town board is concerned about the financial impact of the town’s obligation as a member of the Rhinelander Library District, but it is not abandoning the library. Facing what was described as a larger than usual crowd, a number of whom indicated they chose to attend the Wednesday evening town board meeting to offer input on an agenda item entitled “library agreement,” the board members present attempted to explain the town’s position.

“I just want to say Pine Lake is always going to support the library and always has,” town chairman Jim Flory explained, adding that social media buzz likely played a role in drawing a  crowd to the community building on a cold, January night. “We are already committed with our share for 2024 and 2025, so we’re not running away completely...we just put this on because we are, like all the other townships, we’re getting cashed...”

“We have a lot of expenses coming up and it’s not that we’re going to cut the library, we’ve gotta cut different places so we’re looking into different stuff,” he added, noting that the town’s levy limit “only goes up $1,000 each year.”

“If that,” clerk Cindy Skinner interjected. “It’s based on net new construction, so it depends on how much construction we have in the community and we only get a percentage of it.”

Flory went on to list some of the expenses on the horizon. He mentioned road resurfacing, which he said costs $180,000 per mile “and we have 65 miles of roads.”

Also, a new plow truck is expected this spring, the town is about to address its garbage contract and the fire department is looking for a new fire truck, Flory said.

“That’s just a couple of things that we have to struggle with over the next year and a half, so we thought let’s look at different ways we can tighten our belt and the library agreement just came up in one of our conversations.”

Because two of the four town supervisors, Jennifer Cordy and Brian Gehrig, were absent, Flory was quick to advise that there would be no immediate action taken.

In further explaining the board’s position, he noted that a specific concern that has been identified involves wages and benefits payed to library staff.

“They have just over a $1 million in their budget. They are spending $869,000 on wages and benefits,” he alleged. “If we gotta tighten our belt in Pine Lake, I think everybody should,” he added.

Town supervisor Ron Lueneburg reiterated that the board is exploring its options in an effort to remain fiscally responsible.

“There’s only so much money and it only goes so far and each year the distance is goes is getting less and less,” he said.

Flory also noted that the town receives information on the number of books checked out by town residents — the figure was 683 for the month of December 2023 and 10,244 for the year 2023 — but it’s unclear how many individuals are doing the borrowing.

“Is it 10 people or 600 people?” he asked.

At that point, a lively discussion ensued wherein audience members mentioned the massive popularity of audiobooks and eBooks that are borrowed via apps, like the popular Libby, without patrons entering the historic Carnegie building on Stevens Street and thus are not counted the same way paper book loans are.

Also mentioned was the interlibrary loan service, the wide variety of free programs and services available through the library and its important role in providing lifelong learning opportunities to all.

Skinner stated that she wanted to clarify that the town is not looking to “defund” the library. It is exploring whether to withdraw from the Rhinelander Library District (which also includes the City of Rhinelander, Pelican, Newbold and Crescent) and function as some of the other Oneida County townships do and contribute to the library through county property taxes, she explained.

“We would just be paying in a different way,” she explained. “We would be paying through our county taxes and not through our town taxes.”

The town contributes approximately $122,000 to the library as a member of the district, according to Skinner. If it were to withdraw from the district, that figure would drop to approximately $55,000 to $60,000, she told the audience. 

“Everybody gets angry at us when we go to the arbitration meetings because we’re the ones who put our foot down,” Skinner added, noting that she served on the library board of trustees during the COVID-19 pandemic and remembers that a decision was made to continue paying library employees during the period when the building was closed to the public whether they were working or not. 

“It’s just very frustrating to be termed as ‘the evil people’ because we’re trying to do what’s right for the community,” she added.

Dianna Harris, a current member of the board of trustees and a county board supervisor representing Pine Lake, stressed that Pine Lake residents would continue to have access to the library in the event the board does eventually chose to withdraw from the library district.

“No matter what decision the board makes, as county residents anybody in Pine Lake would still have access to the library and library services. So that would not go away either way,” Harris said.

Another “bone of contention,” according to Skinner, is the potential expansion of the library facility that has been under discussion for many years. If that expansion comes to fruition, there would likely be financial ramifications including heat, electricity and additional personnel, she noted.

At that point, Bill Freudenberg, vice president of the library’s board of trustees, spoke up.

Freudenberg assured the Pine Lake board members that the board of trustees understands that “budgets are tight.” 

The nine-member group that governs the library remains interested in a potential expansion but is “proceeding in a slow way’ and focusing on feasibility and common sense, he added.

“This library is very important to the community,” he stressed.

As the discussion continued, another audience member asked about the possibility of “nudging” the organizers of the Hodag Country Festival, held in Pine Lake every July, to help pay for road resurfacing.

“That probably would be a whole ‘nother discussion,” Flory replied. “And one of the first things they would say is do you know how many people and much money we bring into the Rhinelander area.”

The discussion ended with comments from audience members on ways to work together to protect the library as a source of knowledge and education for all. 

Before moving on to other topics, Flory noted that he doesn’t necessarily expect the library agreement to be on the board’s next meeting agenda but assured the audience that the public will be provided with notice when the panel decides to revisit the issue.

Heather Schaefer may be reached at [email protected].