PULASKI (NBC 26) — In 2019, Brown County set aside $1 million for improvements to the county's library branch in Pulaski. Now, the library board has made an offer on a building to house the improved library.
- Take a look inside the current Brown County Library's Pulaski branch in the village's downtown
- Meet a woman who is excited by the prospect of improvements to the library's facilities
- Brown County, the village of Pulaski, the Pulaski Area Chamber of Commerce and Pulaski Area Community Education are partners in the new library project
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story.)
This building in downtown Pulaski might not be the village's library for much longer. I'm your Pulaski neighborhood reporter Pari Apostolakos. I'm here with the county's latest plans for an improved library, which one woman says she is excited about.
Anne Paluch says she comes to the Brown County Library's Pulaski Branch on West Pulaski Street about once a month.
"When I heard that the Pulaski library might move, I was so excited," Paluch said. "I feel Pulaski deserves a bigger, better library for this community."
And she's not the only one. Brown county library executive director Sarah Sugden has been on the project since 2019, when $1 million was set aside by brown county for improvements to the Pulaski library.
"The disruption of our timeline through COVID can't be ignored," Sugden said. "Knowing that the pace of government is thoughtful and thorough and it is not quick."
Up until this summer, Sugden says the county planned to renovate the current library building. Now, five years later, the library board has made an offer on a different building which used to be a Family Dollar store on Wisconsin Street.
Sugden says if the new and improved library is moved to the old Family Dollar building, the project could be done for less money and take less time.
"[I have] goosebumps just thinking about the kind of things that can happen," Sugden said.
She says the Wisconsin Street property would mean a bigger facility with public meeting spaces and green space for the community to enjoy.
"We lack terribly in what we have to offer people [from] the library," Pulaski Village President Keith Chambers said.
Chambers said in 2019 the village offered to match Brown County's contribution of $1 million towards the new library.
He says with increased construction costs, the price of the project may have changed since then. But, Chambers says the village's current plan is to take on debt to contribute to the library rather than using taxpayer money.
The purchase of the new building for the library still needs approval from Brown County. The decision will be on the agenda for the county board at their meeting on Sept. 18.
