DC Library Planning Committee exploring Ridgeland becoming a branch of Colfax Public Library
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — The Dunn County Library Planning Committee is in the beginning stages of exploring the possibility of library services in Ridgeland becoming a branch of the Colfax Public Library.
Ridgeland is in the eighth year of having a building full of books that are circulated to the public, said Ray Glaser , chair of the Ridgeland library board, at the Dunn County Library Planning Committee’s December 6 meeting.
Although Ridgeland has a building where books and other materials are loaned out, the service is run by volunteers and is funded by donations and fund-raising efforts and is not officially a public library.
Through fund raising, the library board has been able to renovate the basement of the building, install a new roof and a handicapped accessibility ramp, has put in new windows and has added a kitchen, Glaser said.
Members of the library board include one full-time librarian who works in the Barron school district, two retired professors from UW-Stout and one person who formerly worked for the state Department of Public Instruction, he said.
The organization has done a large amount of fund raising and also receives quite a lot of help from Kyle’s Market in Colfax, Glaser said.
The recent “Spirits in the Night” event raised $3,500 for library services in Ridgeland, he said.
The people who run the library are all volunteers and there is no paid staff, Glaser said.
Glaser noted that he is the former owner of Ray’s Market in Ridgeland, which he sold this summer to Jesse and Ashlee Coates, and that after selling his store, he had hip replacement surgery.
Glaser also is the chair of the Wilson Town Board, serves as the Town of Wilson’s representative on the Colfax Solid Waste and Recycling Committee and said he serves on seven boards all together.
Although Ridgeland is located in Dunn County, it is on the Barron County line, and the library planning committee is interested in helping in any way possible for the Ridgeland library to continue being successful, said Gary Stene, chair of the Dunn County Library Planning Committee and county board supervisor from Colfax.
Branch library
As an entity, the library services in Ridgeland are not recognized as a public library within state law, said John Thompson, director of the IFLS Library System (formerly known as the Indianhead Federated Library System).
One of the options for Ridgeland is that the library service could become a branch library of any public library in the area, including Barron, Sand Creek, Boyceville, Colfax or Menomonie, he said.
A library branch agreement would allow both parties to say what that branch library agreement would look like, Thompson said.
Ridgeland could become a branch of any public library and stay the exactly the same as it is now with volunteer labor, and the operations could be funded exactly as they are funded now, Thompson said.
The existing public library would become the parent library, and Dunn County would be able to appoint a representatives to the parent library board to represent the branch library, he adding, adding the library in Elk Mound is an example of a branch library and is a branch of the Menomonie Public Library.
Under a branch agreement, usage of the library by patrons who live outside of Ridgeland would be reimbursable by Dunn County, Thompson said.
The Dunn County Board has approved funding 100 percent of the usage cost for residents who live out in the county who use the public libraries at Boyceville, Colfax, Sand Creek and Menomonie.
Ginny Julson, director of the Boyceville Public Library, noted that Dunn County provides about 50 percent of the budget for the Boyceville library.
Dunn County provides about two-thirds of the budget for the Colfax Public Library, said Lisa Bragg-Hurlburt, director of the Colfax Public Library.
Under a branch agreement, Ridgeland would have the certified library director of the parent library and would have the benefit of county funding, Thompson said.
Joint library
A second option would be form a joint library with an existing library, Thompson said.
The tax base would fund both operations, he said.
Joint libraries generally “work okay,” although sometimes it reaches a point where the members of the joint library no longer get along, and the joint library dissolves, Thompson said.
Hudson is one example of joint library system that is not working out, he said.
The Hudson Joint Library System has been in existence for 10 years, but the library board recently voted to cease operations because the partners are not getting along, Thompson said.
A joint library must create a funding mechanism to fund operations. Funding possibilities can include a per capita fee, a percentage of the usage or a property tax mill rate, he said.
Forming a joint library requires a feasibility study by the state Division of Libraries and Technology, and the division must give an opinion on whether a joint library is a good idea, Thompson said.
Public library
A third option would be to form a public library, Thompson said.
The municipality must approve forming a public library, and then a library plan must be created, he said.
The Division of Libraries and Technology must also give an opinion on the feasibility of forming a public library, Thompson said.
Deer Park is the smallest library in Wisconsin and has 10 more people than Ridgeland, he noted.
The municipality must create a library and appoint a library board of either five or seven members, and one of those members would have to be the school district administrator or the administrator’s designee. The village would have to fund the operations and would have to hire a certified library director, Thompson said.
By state law, the library board has exclusive control of the funding and has the ability to hire library directors and to set wages, he said.
Previous public library standards set the minimum annual budget at $69,000, Thompson said.
Being a public library requires the library director to work a minimum of 10 hours per week. The library must spend $2,500 on library materials, and the library must be open to the public at least 20 hours per week, he said.
A public library must have one paid employee although the public library could rely on volunteers for the rest of the work, Thompson said.
There is no fee to be part of a library system, which provides technical support and training for public libraries, but there is a fee to be part of the MORE system (My Online Resource), he said.
If Ridgeland was a branch library, Ridgeland would automatically have access to the MORE system though the parent library, Thompson said.
Starting a public library would probably require an investment of $12,000 to $20,000, he said.
After Thompson had finished outlining the options, Glaser said he was recalling the same options being discussion seven or eight years ago before Ridgeland started library services.
“The numbers are little different now,” he said.
Whatever works
The Dunn County Library Planning Committee never intended to make Ridgeland feel as if the library services are not important to Dunn County, said Vaughn Hedlund, a member of the library planning committee and county board supervisor from Boyceville.
“If what you’ve got continues to work, we do not want to spoil it,” he said.
At the same time, county funding could be available for Ridgeland library services, Hedlund said.
Jim Tripp, a member of the library planning committee and a former member of the Dunn County Board, said he suspected that many of the Ridgeland patrons come from outside of Dunn County.
Since the Ridgeland library service is not a branch library, a joint library or a public library, Barron County does not have to reimburse Dunn County for the library usage in Ridgeland, he said.
On the other hand, Dunn County does have to reimburse Barron County for northern Dunn County residents who use libraries in Barron County, Tripp said.
If Ridgeland was a branch library, a joint library or a public library, then Barron County would have to reimburse Dunn County for Barron County residents who use the Ridgeland library service, he said.
Ridgeland is in the Barron school district, Glaser said.
For the Town of Wilson, 18 of the southern sections of the township are in the Colfax school district, and 18 of the northern sections of the township are in the Chetek school district, he said.
Some families open enroll their students in Prairie Farm or Boyceville, Glaser noted.
Colfax
If a library wants to take on a branch, and if the branch library has a system of volunteers, then perhaps it would not be so hugely expensive for the parent library, Bragg-Hurlburt said.
That could be part of a branch library agreement with Ridgeland, Thompson said.
Ridgeland could have the responsibility for the building upkeep, the staffing and the utilities and would still be part of the MORE system as a branch of the Colfax library, he said.
Colfax would have some book courier costs but also would have revenue from Ridgeland as a branch library, Thompson said.
If Ridgeland was a Dunn County library, it would generate revenue from Barron County. Prairie Farm does not have a library, so there could be an outreach program to Prairie Farm, he said.
Bragg-Hurlburt asked if the IFLS Library System has paperwork to fill out for adding a branch library.
There is no standardized branch agreement, but Thompson said he would be willing to help work through the process.
Andrew Mercil, Dunn County clerk, said he would be willing to gather examples of branch library agreements and then distribute them to the library planning committee and to the library directors in Dunn County.
Strategic partner
The Elk Mound library is a strategic partner for Menomonie, said Jolene Sterk, director of the Menomonie Public Library.
The Elk Mound library branch gets usage from Eau Claire County and Chippewa County, so instead of Dunn County paying money to Eau Claire and Chippewa, the money is staying in Dunn County, and that’s money that would have otherwise been lost, she said.
Menomonie is paying for staffing and collections, and the Village of Elk Mound is paying for the building, overhead, the computers and other operational costs, Sterk said.
What Menomonie has netted from the additional usage more than pays for the cost of sending staff to Elk Mound several times a week, she said.
Glaser said he liked the idea of forming a branch library.
After owning the store in Ridgeland for 10 years, Glaser said he was aware that residents of Colfax and Boyceville do quite a lot of business in Ridgeland.
The young lady and her family who purchased Ray’s Market are from Colfax, and their children go to school in Colfax, he said.
The Wilson Town Board partnered with Colfax Solid Waste and Recycling, Glaser noted, adding that his grandmother also was from Colfax.
“I am excited about the possibilities,” he said.
“We should talk more,” Bragg-Hurlburt said.
As a branch library, Ridgeland would be able to keep its autonomy and still be self-functioning, she said.
Glaser said he would take the idea back to the Ridgeland library board.
When Ridgeland first started talking about a library, the Dunn County Board passed a resolution in support of a library in Ridgeland, and that resolution still stands, Tripp said.
The Dunn County Library Planning Committee meets next on February 28, 2023, at the Dunn County Government Center.
