CORINTH — City leaders revisited the question of the Lake Cities Library’s future Thursday night — and their first answers didn’t go down well with library representatives.

Interim City Manager Jim Berzina told the council any decision it made would be one of both budget and service.

One of the more budget-friendly options — a contract with the Denton Public Library — could mean not only the end of a local library but also the end of free library service for Corinth residents.

“I’m afraid if you do that, this library is going to collapse,” said Judy Ann Carruthers, Corinth’s representative to the Lake Cities Library board.

Currently, Corinth contributes about $96,000 to the library’s $294,000 annual budget. Hickory Creek, Lake Dallas and Shady Shores also contribute.

About 6,000 of the library’s 7,900 cardholders live in Corinth and Lake Dallas, with 3,000 coming from each city, according to librarian Rebecca Belknap.

In addition, about 2,400 households in the Lake Cities also pay $50 each year for full privileges at Denton’s libraries.

If Corinth paid a per-capita fee for a service contract with Denton, Corinth residents would still likely pay for full privileges, but a reduced amount of $30 to $35 annually, city staff said.

“You’re telling your citizens that you’re denying them the service unless [they] can come up with the money themselves,” Belknap told the council. “Obviously, that’s your prerogative, but you’re doing this at a time — especially with the economy the way it is — when people are using the library for job-hunting services.”

After several council members brought up other options — some kind of arrangement with North Central Texas College, or free service in Flower Mound, Lewisville and Carrollton — Belknap told the council that those assumptions create access issues.

The Richardson and Ad­dison libraries hiked their out-of-town member fees to $250 after the Dallas library cuts created burdens on those adjoining cities. Just getting to a library in another town can be a problem for some families, Belknap said.

“In surveys, our cardholders tell us that transportation is a big issue,” Belknap said. “Our library is much more accessible for a family to get to. It means a lot to a single parent.”

The library’s dire need for a larger facility came to the fore during budget hearings. The library is currently housed in a small building owned by the city of Lake Dallas.

To meet state standards for the population it serves, the Lake Cities Library must quadruple in size, board member Cecil Carter told all four member cities last summer.

The board proposed moving to a retail space in Hickory Creek, but that space would have been only half the size the library needs.

The building boon of the last decade brought thousands of new homes to the Lake Cities as well as shopping centers, schools and other public buildings.

All four cities have expanded, or are expanding now, their government campuses in one way or another — building new city halls, public works buildings, animal shelters and a fire station. Shady Shores paid cash for its new town hall last year.

Carter had reminded member cities that the Lake Cities Library board of directors asked that its facility be a part of that rising tide in 2002, but all said “no” back then.

Corinth Mayor Paul Ruggiere said he didn’t realize until August how underfunded the library had been to that point.

“It’s been a phenomenal operation, given the limitations, but it is not adequate for the area,” Ruggiere said. “It’s very clear that if we want to have services to Texas standards, it’s going to take a large commitment.”

Council member Bruce Hanson said it would be good for the council to keep in mind, for future discussions, that residents have voted for the kind of service they want by paying for Denton library memberships.

“With 2,000 households paying $50 each, they’re paying $100,000 — that’s even greater than what we’re paying out of the general fund,” Hanson said.

Ruggiere pledged Thursday night’s discussion would be one of many discussions in the next six to nine months.