Last week, the City of Eagle River closed the door on the Olson Memorial Library, imposing an August 15th deadline for finding a new fiscal agent and a new owner.
City officials and members of the council seem convinced the library’s board of trustees and its fund-raising foundation are bungling the expansion and renovation project by not following state law.
However, the board of trustees maintains no law was violated in retaining Jeff Visner of Design/Build by Visner to draw up plans for the project. The trustees have retained a Madison law firm with experience in representing libraries that are supported financially by more than one municipality.
Representatives of the town of Lincoln asked a lot of questions at Tuesday night’s meeting. The town attorney, Steve Lucarelli, recommended that library officials get an environmental assessment of the building. And Nan Andrews, Lincoln’s representative on the library board of trustees, showed a new website packed with detailed information about the library project, dating back to the original plan in 2007.
Brian Uttecht, who chaired the discussion about the library, indicated the town will call a special meeting to decide whether to assume ownership of the property and serve as the fiscal agent….before the August 15th deadline.
Olson Memorial library is a joint library, serving the city of Eagle River and the Vilas county towns of Lincoln, Washington, Cloverland, St. Germain, Conover and Arbor Vitae, which jointly fund the operational costs of the library.
