First, the mayor of Glendale wrote on Facebook last month that “Fox Point killed the North Shore Library.” Then, the village of Fox Point issued an Aug. 24 news release in apparent response, stating that Glendale wants to start charging rent to the other communities that share in the library.
The dispute could change how the library is funded or even how library service is constituted along Milwaukee’s north shore. Glendale has said it will withdraw from the North Shore Library.
The North Shore Library, 6800 N. Port Washington Road, Glendale, is a cooperative effort of Glendale, Fox Point, Bayside and River Hills. The communities have been negotiating over a reformulation of their joint library agreement, possible renovations and funding.
Glendale Mayor Bryan Kennedy charged in a public Facebook post that “Fox Point has no intention of cooperating with its library partners.” This, he wrote, is “after more than a year of negotiating in bad faith and then voting down agreements or refusing to put agreements on the agenda to consider …”
The Fox Point response was less passionate: “The library benefits from a fifty–year, rent–free lease. Glendale will not allow the library to go forward with the renovation unless the funding formula for the library is changed to pay Glendale rent for the library space.”
Fox Point asserts that it is willing to continue to work toward an agreement on a lease and to keep a “much needed” library renovation on track.