Oconto County Billed $125K For Brown County Library Use

Kids at the library (Photo credit: mamamusings)

We understand budgets are tight but library costs seem to be getting out of hand. Seems Brown County is looking for more money from it’s neighbors.

Library bill will cost 5 area counties
Brown Co. could be barred from books in Outagamie

Updated: Wednesday, 10 Oct 2012, 5:47 PM CDT
Published : Wednesday, 10 Oct 2012, 7:46 AM CDT

Mark Leland, FOX 11 News
GREEN BAY – There’s a border battle brewing between Brown County and its surrounding neighbors. It has to do with the cost of checking out library books. And at least one county is fighting back.

The Brown County Library with its eight branches is the largest in Northeast Wisconsin. More than two and a half million books and other materials were checked out last year.

But not all of those flashing a library card live in Brown County.

“I’m closer to the one in Wrightstown,” said Willy Heindel, who lives in the Town of Kaukauna, just across the border in Outagamie County.

But he’s less than a mile from Brown County’s Wrightstown Library so he oftentimes goes there.

Oconto County received the largest bill totaling $125,913. Right in the middle is Outagamie County with a bill of $33,281.

Read more at WLUK Fox 11.

We cannot understand why Oconto and the other counties would even consider paying Brown County. All libraries are becoming the buggy whips of the past. With new technology people are going to libraries less and the costs to keep them open is getting out of hand. We feel there should be consolidations of many libraries in the outlining areas.