Salem affirms nine-member Library Board

Note: The Village of Twin Lakes, part of the Community Library System, approved the revised joint library agreement at a Special Board Meeting Friday on a 6-0 vote. Trustee Aaron Karow was absent at the 11 a.m. meeting.

Move may satisfy Paddock Lake’s concerns

By Gail Peckler-Dziki
Correspondent

The Salem Town Board voted on a nine-member library board and included using one of their four seats for a required school board member.

Salem board members said they hopes this recent move will settle the intergovernmental agreement that governs the Community Library.

For years, the five municipalities that share the Community Library had equal representation, two members from the towns Salem, Randall and villages of Twin Lakes, Paddock Lake and Silver Lake.

Then state law changed, requiring that municipal representation is reflective population, like the state House of Representatives.

Instead of all municipal heads meeting to develop a solution, the communities involved attempted to develop an updated agreement through email.

The first draft agreement Salem produced gave some of its seats to representatives from the other municipalities to maintain even representation.

Additionally, Salem had a verbal agreement with the Department of Public Instruction.

Paddock Lake, which would only have one representative with the new law, demanded written permission from the DPI, but did not receive a response.

Therefore, Paddock Lake rewrote the agreement for 10 members.

Potential modifications rapidly progressed, until Salem finally proposed a nine-member board but without a school representative.

The DPI, citing a state statute, said a school representative is required.

Salem responded, suggesting that nine-member board is maintained, but every three years, a municipality relinquishes a seat for the school representative on a rotating basis.

After the Kenosha County Library System began its budget process without the Community Library – therefore, joining another system – Paddock Lake responded, stating they would agree to sign any agreement the other municipalities choose.

However, Paddock Lake Village Administrator Tim Popanda expressed concern about the future.

“But if it’s the nine-member board,” Popanda said. “Paddock Lake will be out of the Community Library in 18 months.”

That is the legal time it takes to leave the joint library.

The concern was giving up its one seat for a three-year period.

The Salem town officials said they hope the change, from the municipalities rotating the school seat among all to Salem giving up one seat for the school representative, will solve the problems and leave the Community Library five-member group intact.

At the end of the vote, town Supervisor Dan Campion, who attended remotely by telephone, commented, “It’s nice to see that there is more than one adult in the room.”


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