In a bizarre turnabout that left local officials stunned, Waukesha County (Wis.) Executive Dan Finley has proposed taking over the 16-member Waukesha County Federated Library System by forming a county library department. He floated the idea some two weeks after vetoing library performance standards for the federation as an “unfunded mandate.”
“While this option is bold, it offers a true solution that our system has lacked for almost 20 years,” Finley wrote in an early August memo to county supervisors, proposing that his plan would end ongoing squabbles over how much money municipalities without libraries should be paying in exchange for library privileges in neighboring towns.
Menomonee Falls Village President Joseph Greco said in the August 2 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he sees no point in continuing to plan a new $6.1-million library “unless I have a guarantee from the county that they are going to reimburse us for the building.” Butler Library Board President Marion Tiffany chimed in, “I would hate to see us lose our library,” expressing concern that a county system might close smaller facilities to save money.
Posted August 14, 2000.