Cottage Grove Village Board votes to disband library board

At their May 18 meeting, the Cottage Grove Village Board voted 6-1 to repeal the 2004 ordinance that created the village library board. Diane Wiedenbeck, library board president and a member of the village board, cast the lone dissenting vote. On May 13, the library board took action to transfer their donations and land to the Friends of the Cottage Grove Community Library, a nonprofit corporation. According to a report in the Home Town News, the move was in part a reaction to the April election of a majority of village trustees who had campaigned against library spending. Wiedenbeck, contacted May 19 by WLA staff, stated that the board was disappointed, but not surprised by the village trustees' action. She said that her disappointment wasn't just about the loss of all the work she and others had completed on the library project, but "It's about what the community is missing out on" by not having a library.