Lake County leaders consider banning Polk residents from library

LAKE COUNTY, Fla. — Lake County leaders are mulling a decision as to whether they'll boot Polk County residents out of their library.

Polk County contributes $78,000 a year to a library along the Lake County border, but officials now want to cut that back to $7,600.

Now, Lake County officials are considering charging Polk County residents a special fee or keeping them from using the Cagan Crossings Library in Four Corners altogether.

When Lake County spent $8 million to build the library in 2008, it had a deal with Polk County to run the location.

But Polk's subsidy has steadily dropped from a high of $210,000 a few years back to the low offer of $7,600 for the coming fiscal year.

And Polk officials claim a large number of Lake residents use its new regional park a few miles down on U.S. 27, so they don't feel obligated to pay nearly as much to operate the library.

But Lake County commissioners said nearly 20 percent of the library patrons are Polk residents, so officials might require those residents to pay more for a library card or not allow them to check out books at all.

Lake County officials have not yet finalized a decision.

WFTV