Meeting of the Tri-Troy Boards

 

5-10-2024

Many moons ago when I was a simple high school English teacher and ETCSD librarian, I held the school district’s seat on the Library Board of Trustees. Enough moons that I served under three different directors: Jackie Gotz (who now serves on the board), Alison Senkevitch, and Jeff Gartman. Each of those directors made efforts toward a new library building.

During Alison’s tenure, the Board sat through months of interviews of architects before selecting one to conduct a Needs Assessment the results of which I had removed from our website during the redesign in February. At this point so much time has passed, it’s out of date. At the time, we were looking to incorporate a community center and senior living facility. A steering committee was formed and meetings were held.

Many meetings. Until finally Martha Bressler and Lloyd Sineni left the committee and just formed a community center on their own in 2019. Additional meetings followed regarding both the senior living facility and expanded library.

Talk around the library switched gears and focused on created a joint library. Currently, the East Troy Lions Public Library is an asset of the Village of East Troy. Residents of the Village pay library taxes to the Village that directly support us. Communities such as the Towns of East Troy and Troy which do not contain a public library also collect library tax. However, those monies are paid to the county and is then distributed to the libraries their citizens use. A joint library would see those tax dollars paid directly to a specific library.

About two weeks ago I attended a meeting of the Tri-Troy Boards, Village of East Troy, Town of East Troy, and Town of Troy. One of the main topics of discussion was the joint library. Those earlier talks actually resulted in an agreement to make a library one of the services the three communities jointly supported. Director Gartman resigned believing the agreement would be signed in time for the 2023 budgeting cycle.

Then the shoe dropped. Since the money would no longer be part of county taxes for the Towns, it would transfer to being part of their tax levy, a situation that would require a referendum. Taxes wouldn’t really increase as they were only shifting recipients; however, the majority of voters weren’t likely to understand that as most people don’t study library funding.

Since the shoe fell, the library and the Tri-Troy Boards have been working with Walworth County Administrator Mark Luberda to find a solution. Luberda’s advise was a slight change in the wording of Wisconsin statues that directly address public libraries. That wording would label the library taxes collected by the Towns a “transfer of services” or something to that effect meaning it wouldn’t impact the levy. He gave a status report and I presented the community survey results so each Board would know what their communities had to say.

Meetings and work will continue for at least a year before we can expect results as it involves a lot of politicians. The State Assembly won’t meet again until January. In the meanwhile, know we are looking towards a name change.

Reading now: Dona Barbara by Romulo Gallegos (Back to it from the PBS list. I'll try to actually finish it this time.)

Listening to now: Besieged by Kevin Hearne (Book 9 in the Iron Druid Chronicles)