Fox Lake library to ramp up access

Fox Lake is raising money for a new library, but at the same time will spend $25,000 to make the current building accessible to people with disabilities.

The city plans to sell the library building to help pay for a $1 million addition to City Hall, but nobody knows how long it will take to round up donations for the project.

In the meantime, former library board member and Alderman Dennis Wray can't get his wheelchair into the bathrooms or down the aisles at the library. He can't even get into the building without calling ahead to have a librarian open the door.

In May 2007, he complained to the federal government, and now the city must improve the problem by September or face penalties.

"I'm willing to go along with it to a point, but I'm not going to wait four or five years for a library to get built," Wray said. "That's a long time for me to have to keep calling ahead."

The accessibility project, which is out for bids, will not cover all eight violations identified by the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights. For example, instead of spending up to $20,000 to build an electronic system to open the heavy front doors, the city will install a doorbell.

If the two big issues -- front-door and bathroom access -- are addressed, the city will not be penalized.

The improvements probably won't increase the selling price of the building, since they wouldn't make a difference if it's used for private purposes, said Susan Leahy, manager of architectural services for Kunkel Engineering Group LLC, Beaver Dam, the engineer on the accessibility and library expansion projects.

"They don't have a choice," she said. "It has to be done or else they'll end up in court."

Beverly Connor, president of the Fox Lake Public Library Board of Trustees, noted the city could have been forced to spend up to $80,000 to fix all the accessibility violations.

The Fox Lake library board will kick off its official efforts to raise money and will unveil a rendering of the new building in mid- August, Connor said.

Wray said he tried to raise money for the accessibility project while he was a member of the Common Council.

He said he waited until after he was voted out of office in April 2007 to file his complaint with the federal government because he didn't want the situation to get too political. He also said he will try to make donations to the expansion project.

"I live on a fixed income," he said. "I'll do what I can to help them. I'll buy lottery tickets if that will help."

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