Excerpt: Port Washington aldermen last week asked Ozaukee County to support a five-year library plan that would increase the amount of money the Niederkorn Library receives for providing services to residents of areas without their own libraries.
Currently, the library is reimbursed for 85% of the cost to provide services to these residents, Library Director David Nimmer said.
The proposed library plan, which would affect all libraries in Ozaukee County, would increase that reimbursement to 93% by 2015, with an eye toward eventually fully reimbursing libraries for the cost of serving people in non-libraried areas, Nimmer said.
About 21% of the library services go to residents outside the city, he said.
“That’s significant,” Nimmer said.
Most aldermen agreed, saying full reimbursement is a matter of fairness.
“Effectively, our taxpayers are carrying some of the town taxpayers,” Ald. Tom Hudson, a member of the Port Library Board, said.
“It’s kind of an inequity. We make our library available to them, and I think that’s a wonderful thing, but they only pay us 85 cents on the dollar. I don’t think that’s quite fair. Everybody should carry their share of the load.”
City Administrator Mark Grams said the Niederkorn Library is used by more residents of the non-libraried areas than any other in the county.
“We’d like to see 100% reimbursement,” he said, noting it would increase the library’s revenues by $18,000.
Although the proposed library plan only calls for a 93% reimbursement, Nimmer said, “It is a step in the right direction.”
[snip]
The city doesn’t provide any other service to residents outside its border without full reimbursement, officials noted.
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