Negotiations on a new Madison Central Library collapsed Thursday after city officials and Fiore Companies failed to settle a $2 million budget dispute.
According to Mayor Dave Cieslewicz's blog, both sides made ""good-faith"" efforts to work out a deal in which a new library would have been built on West Washington Avenue and the current site sold to Fiore for redevelopment.
After not reaching a compromise, Cieslewicz wrote that he hopes to remodel the existing library instead.
Ald. Bryon Eagon, District 8, said he wished Cieslewicz would have asked the Common Council to reconsider adding the $2 million that Fiore had asked the city for. Fiore wanted the money in return for design work the company had already put in.
""I'm disappointed that the council didn't have an opportunity to even discuss or debate putting $2 million more into the project,"" Eagon said.
Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said he was also upset that negotiations fell through despite surprisingly strong support from the council last November for its $37 million offer to Fiore.
""It is odd that the mayor didn't have at least a closed session meeting with the city's finance committee, the Board of Estimates,"" Verveer said. ""Unlike with the Edgewater Hotel proposal, I think almost all downtown residents were universally supportive of a new downtown Central Library.""
Verveer said he hopes to make the best of the situation and move forward on much-needed renovations for the Central Library as quickly as possible.
""[The Central Library] is extremely outdated ... The maintenance needs there are a mile long. The fact is that their roof could give at any time and would be a disaster, so I think time is of the essence,"" Verveer said.
Verveer said recent plans to remodel the current library have been estimated to cost $27 million and would add one or two stories to the existing structure.
