Cook Memorial library lease expired in 1984

The main Cook Memorial Public Library has operated in the same building in Cook Park since 1968, but library officials don't actually own the land beneath it.

They lease the land from the owner, the village of Libertyville, for $1 a year.

During preparations for an upcoming construction project, however, library officials discovered the lease governing that arrangement had expired - in 1984.

"We forgot about it and they forgot about it," Libertyville Mayor Jeff Harger said Wednesday.

A new lease is being developed that will take the village's partnership with the library into the next century. The village and library boards could separately vote on the agreement next week.

The lapsed lease came to light last year as library leaders started preparing for a long-awaited expansion at the facility at 413 N. Milwaukee Ave.

The $7 million plan calls for a roughly 11,000-square-foot addition and other improvements. Officials also are building a new, $7 million library on Aspen Drive in Vernon Hills.

The lease covered the land beneath the building and part of the parking lot. The lot's upper level is covered by a separate lease that expires in 2028, Cook Memorial board President Aaron Lawlor said.

Village and library officials have been working to come up with a new deal - but not out of fear the landlord would boot the tenant from the site, Lawlor said.

Although previous boards were comfortable with what Lawlor described as "a gentlemen's agreement" between the two agencies, Lawlor wanted the contract on paper.

"We just wanted to make sure we had an updated agreement before breaking ground," he said. "We wanted to make sure we had a legal claim to the site."

Harger called the old lease a formality. Although village leaders and library officials haven't always seen eye to eye, the village never would kick the library out of Cook Park, Harger said.

"Absolutely not," he said. "It's nothing we were enforcing or they were enforcing."

If approved, the new lease will give Cook Memorial legal right to the land for 99 years, at a cost of $10 a year.

The village board is slated to discuss the lease proposal Tuesday, March 24. The library board likely will review the plan at a special meeting later next week, Lawlor said.