Wyocena village officials have voted to close the community's public library by the end of 2026, after the South Central Library System found the facility out of compliance with state standards for two years running. Now residents are fighting back, gathering more than 175 petition signatures and offering cash to keep the doors open.
The push to close the library followed a formal notice sent Oct. 8 by the South Central Library System, which told Wyocena officials the library did not meet SCLS and Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction standards, according to WMTV 15 News. Officials said the library had been out of compliance for two years, mainly because it lacked a qualified, certified director, a gap that widened after the library's director resigned Sept. 17. At a joint meeting on Oct. 12, village and library officials weighed their options, ruling out continued operation in non-compliance and considering both a voluntary, planned closure and a forced closure that would mean removal from the library system altogether. Officials also said operating independently, outside the SCLS network, was fiscally impossible under current village and county funding.
The Library Board ultimately recommended voluntary closure, and the Village Board approved it unanimously. In a statement, the boards said the plan would keep the library open through 2026 so it could continue serving the community through the remainder of the current budget cycle, allowing what officials described as an orderly transition rather than an abrupt shutdown. Library staff and volunteers were told the closure would proceed the same way — gradually, not suddenly.
Residents Say They Were Caught Off Guard
Not everyone agrees the process has felt orderly. Wyocena residents told the station they received no formal warning that the library was in jeopardy before the vote. Among them is Brad Hauge, who said he was not informed by board members ahead of the closure vote and has since started a petition on behalf of the community and his grandmother, Marilyn Schultz, who works at the library.
Schultz, one of three older staff members at the library, said she was blindsided by the closure vote. She told the station she works there for the friendships rather than the paycheck, and that she is not comfortable driving the three miles to Pardeeville, where the nearest library will be once Wyocena's closes. That arrangement traces back to a May 2025 Columbia County Library Board meeting, where officials recorded that the Village of Pardeeville had decided not to take on Wyocena as a branch, leaving Wyocena to decide how to proceed on its own.
A Push to Hire Rather Than Close
Hauge, who has volunteered at the library for years, has proposed what he calls a third option: immediately hiring a qualified, licensed director to bring the library back into compliance rather than closing it. He pledged to personally match one year of a director's salary, up to $12,500, if both the Village Board and Library Board put up matching funds of their own. He plans to present his petition, which has drawn more than 175 signatures, to the Library Board at its next meeting.
Hauge said he has applied for the director's role multiple times and was never even acknowledged, and he told the station at least three people applied for the position without hearing back, including Schultz, who also applied. WMTV 15 News said it reached out to the Library Board about the status of those applications and its hiring process but had not received a response as of publication. Hauge said he believes some community members are willing and able to help the library regain compliance immediately, and he noted that state requirements call for a director to hold Level 3 certification and handle duties including grant writing and fundraising to secure operational funds.
More Than Books on the Line
Hauge, who uses a wheelchair, described the library as one of the village's few accessible spaces. Library staff have helped patrons with everything from genealogy research to buying cars online, and the building has operated in the village for more than 20 years. It also hosts the Knitwitts, a knitting group with eight members that has drawn interest from people across south central Wisconsin, and other local groups have asked to partner with the library on community events.
Tracey Warning, who owns Flutter Buzz Farm, had planned to teach classes at the library and envisioned it as a hub for connecting the community. Hauge has also raised questions about what will happen to the contents of the library building once it closes. He said dwindling funding has hurt the facility and that many Wyocena seniors do not drive, making the loss of a walkable library acutely felt among older residents.
A Statewide Squeeze on Small Libraries
Wyocena's struggle is not new, nor is it unique. The library faced two closures during the COVID-19 pandemic along with reduced circulation and canceled fundraisers, according to a report from WiscNews, which noted the library overcame those financial challenges to stay open but continued to need additional support. Wisconsin libraries statewide are under similar pressure: officials told Wisconsin Public Radio that inflation has driven up the costs of materials, digital content, staffing, benefits and utilities, even as most library funding still comes from municipal and county budgets. The outlet reported that South Milwaukee's library budget allocation had shrunk by nearly 20 percent since 2019, that La Crosse's Library Board voted to close its North Branch Library over a $175,000 shortfall, and that Menomonee Falls cut $300,000 from its library budget. A 2025 federal executive order also delayed Wisconsin from receiving $3.2 million in allocated library funding until grants were later reinstated.
Under Wisconsin law, a public library system may, with state approval, expel a non-compliant municipality or reduce its aid and services, according to the Wisconsin Legislature. State administrative code also generally requires administrators of publicly funded municipal libraries to hold certification, and the Department of Public Instruction notes that hiring a qualified director is the library board's responsibility. For now, Wyocena's library board and its supporters are left weighing whether a last-minute push — a petition, a matching-funds offer, and a community's attachment to a 20-year-old gathering place — can change the outcome before the end of the year.
