HICKORY CREEK — Town Council members have upped the ante for all the member cities of the Lake Cities Library, betting that the library’s proposed move out of Lake Dallas to a location next to Hickory Creek’s Town Hall has signaled a showdown.

Mayor John Smith suggested during the Town Council’s regular meeting Tuesday night that the town fund the full request the library made of Hickory Creek, setting aside the amount needed to fund the move, if needed, as a measure of support.

“We don’t know what the other councils are going to do,” Smith said. “But if we take the difference and hold it there until the time comes, it will show our commitment to the other towns.”

The library asks each member city — Corinth, Hickory Creek, Lake Dallas and Shady Shores — for a portion of its annual budget based on a formula that includes both population and usage. Denton County also contributes to the library’s budget each year.

Hickory Creek council member Eric Wiser, whose wife, Kathryn, serves on the library board, pushed further, asking whether the town could take over the library — similar to the way Corinth took over the Lake Cities Fire Department in January 2008. He called for a meeting of all Lake Cities councils on the topic.

Smith agreed.

“We could get an interlocal agreement, lock them all in and it’s a done deal,” Smith said. “Then the library doesn’t have to revisit this year after year.”

Library representatives told Hickory Creek that the library needs about $26,000 for its operations budget this year if the library doesn’t move to a new space before 2010. But if it is able to move as planned — to the Cornelius Town Center strip mall between Wal-Mart and Hickory Creek Town Hall — it would need about $15,000 more from the town.

Per square foot, the rent would be about the same in the shopping center as it is in the city-owned building in Lake Dallas, but the new space is twice as big, library director Rebecca Belknap said.

But even after going from 5,000 to 10,000 square feet, the library still would be undersized, according to state standards. “For our population, we should be about 24,000 square feet,” Belknap said.

Corinth would like the library to move to Pinnell Square, near Corinth City Hall and North Central Texas College, but that site has limitations, Kathryn Wiser told the council.

In order to keep the library in Lake Dallas, the city could add on to the current building, but Belknap told the council she was unsure how seriously that city was pursuing that option.

The move also would require a larger staff, Belknap said. She provided the town with a projected budget through 2014.

The Friends of the Lake Cities Library and other community leaders have shown an interest in raising funds to prepare the new space for the move, including shelving and other equipment, as well as new titles for the collection.

A library makes good use of a community’s resources, Belknap said, but the library is at the point where adding new titles requires getting rid of books that are still being used.

“The need for material is out there in the community, but we don’t have a place to put it,” Belknap said.

PEGGY HEINKEL-WOLFE can be reached at 940-566-6881. Her e-mail address is pheinkel-wolfe@dentonrc.com.