Another study committee in La Crosse; this one about a library merger

County board wants a year-long review

The proposal to merge La Crosse’s city and county libraries appears headed the way of many other ideas floated by local leaders – to a study committee.

The county board has authorized a plan to form a special commission to investigate such a merger at Thursday’s meeting.

“It’s my hope that the council and the county board can get, as over used as this phrase is, on the same page, about libraries,” board chair Tara Johnson said. 

At the meeting, the county board gave the OK for a resolution to set up a study commission that could take up to a year to review library service.

That’s what La Crosse County supervisors want to spend studying the concept.

If it were up to La Crosse mayor Tim Kabat, the merger would be finished well before that. That’s when Johnson proposed the study commission, in reaction to Kabat’s surprise merger plan.

“My proposal is 9-12 months and that we have 13, 15, 17, some number of community members or stake holders,” Johnson said.

One supervisor called Kabat’s merger idea “hasty” and another, Dan Ferries, didn’t want to rush things.

“Why I’m a little nervous,” Ferries said, “is sometimes, what we’ve seen in the the past, is some things of this magnitude been brought forward and it just kind of steamrolls forward.”

County administrator Steve O’Malley says he and other county leaders were not consulted by Kabat before the merger idea was announced. O’Malley told the county board Thursday he does not agree with Kabat’s proposal, and he’s against “predetermined conclusions” about the future of local libraries.

“We do not agree with the conclusions that were made in there,” O’Malley said. “We weren’t even consulted in the original analysis.”