The North Shore Library, located on the ground floor of the BVK office building at 6800 N. Port Washington Road, is in need of a renovation, but the four communities that belong to the North Shore Library have been unable to reach a joint library agreement, deadlocking on Glendale's proposal to charge rent for the building.(Photo: C.T. Kruger)

Four North Shore communities agreethe North Shore Library is in need of renovations, but their inability to come to consensus on a joint library agreement has prompted Glendale officials to float the possibility of relocating the library to a new building.

Officials in Glendale, River Hills, Bayside and Fox Point have all agreed to fund a $4.2 million renovation of the current North Shore Library space at 6800 N. Port Washington Road. The North Shore Library Foundation has agreed to contribute $1 million to the renovation.

In planning for those renovations, Glendale City Administrator Rachel Safstrom said she and the three village managers decided the library agreement, which expires in 15 years, should be updated before they issue a 20-year bond for the renovation.

But reaching a new agreement has been difficult for the four communities, which have reached a stalemate after Glendale requested rent from the other communities.

"The North Shore Library is a great library today, but if it is not properly supported by North Shore villages and Glendale, it will not survive many more years," said River Hills VillagePresident J. Stephen Anderson.

The failed negotiations between the communities has been "extremely disappointing" for North Shore Library Director Susan Draeger-Anderson, whose main goal in her five years on the job was to push for a renovation of the "very shabby" facility.

"The library has been held hostage by the four communities," said Draeger-Anderson, who recently announced her resignation.

The originaljoint library agreementwas drafted in 1985, when the library first opened. At the time,Cardinal Stritch University sold the land to abuilding developer with a provision that gave Glendale 15,000 square feet on the first floor for community use.

Under the existing agreement, Glendale collects $1 in annual rent from the library for the first 50 years, or until 2035.

Glendale Mayor Bryan Kennedy said Fox Point broke thatagreement when it requested and received payment for acting as the library's fiscal agent. Fox Point had received the payments for four years,startingaround$9,000 per year and increasing to $14,000.

Kennedy said hefirst learned Fox Point was receiving thefiscal agent credit nearlytwo years ago, during the conversations about a joint library agreement.

"They never told the other communities they were doing that, and it's a direct violation of the agreement," Kennedy said.

If communities are seeking compensation for their contributions, Kennedy said Glendale should be compensated for providing the library space.

"We didn't know they were creating a fiscal agent fee, but we are fine with that if everyone is going to be compensated for what they are contributing," Kennedy said.

The original development agreement, which stipulated Glendale use the space for community use, expired in 2010, Kennedy said.

In the new, proposed joint library agreement, Glendale requested a rent credit thataverages roughly $75,000 per year.

In addition to Glendale's8.5% credit for owning the space, the agreement would have provided a 2.2% credit to Baysidefor acting as fiscal agent and a 0.85% credit to River Hills for providing maintenance service.

Kennedy said the request for rent is not unprecedented as Brown Deer and Shorewood receive a rental credit in the North Shore Health Department agreement. Likewise, the North Shore Fire Department pays rent to Whitefish Bay, which owns its fire station, and has paid rent to other communities for fire stations in the past.

If Glendale wanted to sell the library space, Kennedy saidit could be sold for$1.5 million to $2 million. Putting the library space back on the tax rolls would generate about $75,000 to $80,000 per year in municipal taxes, he said.

The estimated fair market value for the top three floors of the four-story building is$6.7 million, according to online tax records. The owner of the building paid $154,692 in taxes last year, with roughly $44,000 going to Glendale.

The proposed agreement was approved by Glendale officials in January. Bayside officials approved a previous iteration of the agreement in October, and supported the revised agreement in concept, Bayside Village Manager Andy Pederson said.

The village boards in Fox Point and River Hills did not approve the agreement, as they did not agree with Glendale's request for rent credit.

Anderson said the agreement was "heavily weighted to benefit Glendale and not the other villages."

Fox Point Village Manager Scott Botcher said Fox Pointtrusteessupport the renovation of the library, but they donot see the need for a new lease agreement.

"We have a lease in place for $1 per year for the next 15 years," Botcher said. "The board doesn't think they are getting a fair value for giving up that lease."

Fox Point Village President Douglas Frazer took issue with comparing Glendale's rent credit to Fox Point's partial reimbursement for fiscal agent fees.

"The library board approves its own budget and voted to reimburse Fox Point for some of the fiscal agent costs, as was its prerogative," Frazer said.

Fox Point village officials made a counter-proposal in January that offered to extend the terms of the lease and the joint library agreement to 2050. The counter-proposal offeredGlendale $75,000 in annual rent starting in 2036, when the existing lease expires.

The proposal would also allow Glendale to amortize the rent over the 30-year term of the extended lease so the city could start receiving rent payments immediately, Frazer said.

Kennedy said Fox Point's counter-proposal did not interest his board, which would prefer rentcredits over cash payments. Because Glendale has already reached its spending limit under the state's expenditure restraint program, he said the city would not be able to spend any funds it receives from the library.

To eliminate the issue of building ownership, Safstrom has suggested the four communities share the cost of a new building, and then transfer ownership of the building to the North Shore Library Board.

The proposed new location is a 14,462-square-foot building at7545 N. Port Washington Road, just south of Calumet Road.

If the communities agree to buy a new building, Glendale would sell its 15,000 square feetof space and keep the proceeds. The communities would share the proceeds for the 1,000 square feet of space they collectively own.

Officials in Glendale, Fox Point, Bayside and River Hills are discussing the possible relocation of the North Shore Library to this building at 7545 N. Port Washington Road.(Photo: Google Maps)

Architects have not been hired to draw up renovation plans, but Safstrom has used $4 million as an estimate for the renovation cost.

Safstrom estimated the communities could buy the building for $900,000, and then split the cost of the $4 million renovation, with Glendale paying $1.93 million, Fox Point $1.06 million, Bayside $627,387, River Hills $283,693 and the North Shore Library Foundation $1 million.

If the communities agreed to buy the new building, Glendale would no longer take a rent credit, but River Hills and Bayside would still receivecredits for maintenance and acting as the fiscal agent, respectively.

The River Hills Village Board agreed on May 20a new building was worth considering, VillagePresident J. Stephen Anderson said.

The Fox Point Village Board was less receptive when Safstrom presented the concept of a new library building at its June 9 meeting.

"I think Glendale has to figure out how it's going to compensate the library for giving up that lease," said Fox Point Trustee Eric Fonstad, who also serves on the North Shore Library Board.

Fox Point TrusteeChristine Symchych said the negotiationshave"turned into a circus."

Fox Point Trustee Marty Tirado said he has looked at the building in the past, and it needs extensive renovation work.

In a vote after closed session discussion, the Fox Point Village Board said it did not support an alternative library sitebut supports renovations at the existing site.

The dingy carpeting at the North Shore Library is 31 years old and in many spots is held together with duct tape. This long narrow space is also mostly filled with tall bookshelves, leaving little room for other features.(Photo: Jeff Rumage/Now Media Group)

The four communities' inability to agree on library funding is nothing new.

Kurt Glaisner, the president of the library board and a trustee on the River Hills Village Board, said the library has been underfunded for years, since each communities' contributions are often decreased to adjust for the community that offers the smallest increase in its budget.

Several years ago, Draeger-Anderson worked withPederson to study employee wages, and found employees were making 25% to 30% less than their counterparts at other libraries.

The top wageat the circulation desk has increased from$8.57 to $11.11 over the past several years, as Draeger-Anderson has pushed to correct its relatively low wages.

But to raise its wages, the library has dipped into its reserve funds.

Because the library is on the first floor of an office building, thelibrary is also required to pay annual buildingmaintenance fees, for which the library has budgeted$51,000 this year.

By relocating to a new building free of maintenance charges, the library would be able to direct that $51,000 toward personnel, Safstrom said.

The day after Fox Point rejected a new library location, Draeger-Anderson wrote her resignation letter to theNorth Shore Library Board.

Draeger-Anderson said her resignation was not tied to her disappointment in the library negotiations, but because she is concerned her potential exposure to the coronavirus in the library building would harm her husband, who has pulmonary fibrosis and needs a lung transplant.

Draeger-Anderson said she will continue to work at the library for the next several months until a replacement is hired.

ContactJeff Rumage at (262) 446-6616or jeff.rumage@jrn.com. Followhim on Twitter at @JeffRumage orFacebook atwww.facebook.com/northshorenow.

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'The library has been held hostage': The North Shore Library is in need of repairs, but these four communities can't find a solution - Milwaukee...