3/4/2009 11:38:00 AM Council approves library . . . again
A preliminary design of the new library, viewed from the intersection of Lacy Road and Research Park Drive.
Rich Eggleston Special Correspondent
The Fitchburg Library Board got what it requested from the City Council Feb. 24: a green light to authorize planning, fund-raising and probable construction of a $14 million library near Lacy and Fish Hatchery Roads, at a cost to taxpayers sharply reduced from earlier estimates.
Only time will tell whether that green light was on the entrance ramp to a superhighway that will put the library in the fast lane toward construction and operation - or if it will be only one in a series of stop-and-go signals affecting an ambitious project that still could get stuck in rush-hour traffic.
Council members voted 5-2 for the project. Opponents cited the apparent disregard for voters who opposed staffing the library at a net cost of $965,000 a year and the economic tumult facing Fitchburg taxpayers. Supporters emphasized the reduced initial operating costs of the library and an expected lower overall impact on the levy.
Members of the Library Board were elated.
"This is the most important public-private partnership in the history of Fitchburg," said Phil Sveum, board treasurer. He said the vote was the commitment the board and potential donors needed.
"I'm just so pleased," said Ald. Roger Tesch, who sponsored the resolution to give the project the green light. "This is really just the beginning."
"We're really doing something that's of great benefit to the community at a very affordable price," said Ald. Jay Allen. He said in the future, the costs of operating a library will fall below the tax Fitchburg has to pay Dane County for not having a library.
"It will do credit for the city and we will be proud of it," said Ald. William Horns of the proposed library. Horns, however, advocated taking the library cost re-estimate back to voters for their approval, lest the biggest cost of the library be in the form of lost public trust.
Disregarding will of the voters?
"There are costs when you disregard the will of the voters," Horns said.
Ald. Richard Bloomquist presented council members with revised cost estimates based on plans to operate the library only 40 hours a week at first, and 65 hours a week by 2012. The estimates also project greater savings from avoiding Dane County's library tax.
But Bloomquist said he had serious misgivings, based on the fragile nature of the economy in Fitchburg and the rest of the country.
The $113 a year cost to a typical taxpayer in 2012 assumes a degree of growth in property-tax base that might not materialize, he said.
"We assume that times are going to get better faster," he said. "We hope like heck it's $113, but we don't know what it will be. I'm really hesitant to break ground in 2010 given what 2009 is looking like."
New housing starts in Fitchburg were down 43 percent last year, from 74 to 42, Bloomquist said. He also cited the fact of foreclosures across the country.
Also, the realtytrac.com Web site listed 717 property owners in default of their mortgages in Dane County through the end of February, including 491 homes that had been repossessed by banks. At least two dozen homes and apartment buildings in the former category were in Fitchburg.
The interest on $10 million in general obligation bonds at 4.5 percent would total $769,000 a year for 20 years, or $54.18 on a $250,000 home in 2012. There are expected to be more $250,000 homes - more taxable property generally - in subsequent years, so that impact is expected to decline.
Fitchburg's financial adviser, Ehlers & Associates predicts the city to add half a billion dollars to its property tax base between 2011 and 2014, so the impact of library operations on the property taxpayer - estimated at $54.18 in 2012 - is expected to decline as well.
Mayor Tom Clauder said he will work to obtain federal stimulus money for the library, reducing costs further.
The reduced cost estimates should have been submitted to a referendum before the City Council went ahead on the basis of those estimates, Horns said.
When voters balked at an additional $965,000 a year tax bill for operating a library, they weren't drawing a line against any such spending, Ald. Steve Arnold argued.
"We don't know what people are willing to spend," Horns retorted. "They are entitled to be asked again."
Horns and Bloomquist ended up voting against a slightly modified library resolution, and Tesch, Allen, Arnold and Alds. Darren Stucker and Andy Potts voted in favor.
Was there any turning back after the Feb. 24 vote?
Final decision up to next council
Members were aware that there will be at least three new faces on the City Council after the April 7 election as well as a new mayor, and it would be that new council that will have to vote to authorize borrowing $10 million for the library. But the current council should be able to make a commitment, just as hundreds of communities in Wisconsin have committed to libraries in the past, Tesch said.
The really key votes will be by the next city council to actually build and staff a library, City Attorney Mark Sewell suggested.
"You can vote to authorize things here, but you still hold the purse strings," he said.
