The Oconto County Board is expected to give final approval Sept. 19 to a five-year library services plan to cover the years 2025 to 2029, which includes a reduction in county support for five of the six local libraries in the county.
The plan is the result of a nearly two-year study with a focus on reducing the property tax burden on the 11 “unlibraried” municipalities in the county, which otherwise do not support a local library. The library tax is equivalent to 2.1% of the base property tax levy.
The rest of the cities, towns and villages have committed to annual funding of one of the libraries in Oconto, Oconto Falls, Gillett, Lakewood, Suring or Lena.
The board’s administration committee on Sept. 12 passed the plan to the agenda of the Sept. 19 regular monthly meeting of the full board.
“I think it’s the right thing to do,” said County Board Chairman Alan Sleeter. “We explored every avenue of library services in Oconto County, and I think we came up with the right decision.”
The county is required by state statutes to fund 70% of each library’s average cost of circulation, as well as the cost charged by neighboring counties for circulation to residents of the “unlibraried” towns. Sleeter said the new plan “levels the playing field” for funding library services.
A review found that Farnsworth Public Library in Oconto has been receiving less than the required 70%, but the other five libraries are slated to take a reduced amount from the county. Local municipalities will have to make up the difference, either by spending more or cutting services.
For 2025, the cuts amount to Gillett $7,803, Lakes Country $10,344, Lena $5,534, Oconto Falls $15,623, and Suring $6,261.
County Administrator Richard Heath said the plan “is a lot to digest” and expressed appreciation for the hard work of a special committee that prepared the plan since being appointed by former Administrator Erik Pritzl in February 2023.
“From my standpoint, this is a good document moving forward. There’s a lot of clarity in it,” Heath said, noting the plan includes an annual review to avoid inequities that occurred as “unlibraried” municipalities joined joint libraries over the past five years, increasing the burden on the 11 remaining towns.
The Oconto Falls City Council heard a different view Sept. 10 from Rachel Pascoe, director of the Oconto Falls Community Library, who explained that the facility’s cut amounts to 8% of its annual budget.
County Board Supervisor Bart Schindel, who represents part of the city of Oconto Falls, told the council the city is paying the price for keeping its cost of circulation down.
“Oconto Falls ran very lean, but yet we’re taking the brunt,” Schindel said
Pascoe said she can partly see where the committee is coming from.
“They based the numbers on cutting all the libraries an equal percentage, that was their logic, I guess,” she said. “They asked the directors to form a work committee and they said give us some options that you can live with … We worked really hard on it, and they chose one of those options, and we said we know this is not sustainable, but it’s meant to be a transition so that no one gets a big cut like this.”
The next month, the committee decided to go in a different direction, passing the plan that cuts support for five of the six libraries.
“I tried my darnedest to get us a smooth transition, and they came back the next month and said, ‘Oh, the county will never approve this; we have to do something more drastic,’” Pascoe said. “I’m hoping that the funding can be made up somewhere. If it doesn’t, that’s someone’s job, and that means there’ll be a lot less programs I’ll be able to put on, and a lot less stuff I’ll be able to do.”
She thanked the council “for being in my corner as much as you can.”
wbluhm@newmedia-wi.com
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