WESTBROOK – A proposal has yet to come before the Westbrook City Council, but the board of the Walker Memorial Library is already recommending against the city’s buying the vacant Warren Memorial Library building to relocate the Walker library there.

Mike Miles, chairman of the Walker library’s Board of Regents, has released a report by the board concluding that the Warren building is too small to adequately serve patrons – even if the city were to open a new branch library at the Westbrook Community Center, an idea that has had some discussion by city officials.

Also, the report contends that a move would cost taxpayers more in the long run. Although the Warren building is in better condition than the Walker library, which needs costly repairs, it would need expensive renovations and have higher operating costs, the report says.

However, Mayor Colleen Hilton, who revealed this week that the city has made an offer to buy the Warren building, characterized the library board’s objections as premature because a definite proposal is not yet on the table.

“The Walker board is a little bit ahead of having a recommendation from me (to the council),” Hilton said Tuesday.

She said that the city has made an offer for the property, which she said has an appraised value of $1.3 million to $1.6 million.

“We made a very less-than-attractive offer to buy that building,” Hilton said.

She said the Warren board has yet to respond to the city’s offer and may reject it.

“It may be a moot point,” Hilton said of the Walker library board’s objection to the city buying the Warren building as a new home for the public library. The mayor said she expects to hear back from the Warren board in a week or less.

However, Miles said this week that the Walker library board didn’t want to wait until the process was further along to weigh in on it.

“My feeling is that it would be too late by then,” he said.

He said that the five-member board and also two Walker library trustees voted unanimously last week against the Warren purchase and drafted the report. The conclusions were reached after a five-month assessment of the possible move.

Miles said the board decided to act because it has not been involved in the real estate purchase negotiations – which state law allows city officials to conduct behind closed doors – and was worried it wouldn’t have enough opportunity to make its case once an actual proposal was before the council.

Miles said the board’s report was sent to the City Council and city administration.

Brendan Rielly, the council president, said this week that he found the report “very informational and helpful.”

Rielly stressed that “before any decision would be made we would want to have the board involved … and of course the public.”

Jerre Bryant, the city administrator, said the Walker board and trustees in their report make “some absolutely valid points that are being taken into consideration.”

He said the city’s purchase offer to the Warren board was made a week or so ago. He disagreed with the mayor’s “very less-than-attractive” characterization of the offer.

“It’s a good, fair offer that calls on their sense of civic responsibility,” Bryant said of the proposal to the Warren board.

Until a price tag is known, the city’s possible course of action is unknown, Bryant said.

“The issue here is that we don’t even know what it would cost the city to acquire Warren,” he said. “It’s very difficult to make a decision when you don’t have all the information.”

He said the city is only exploring the option of buying Warren because Walker needs more than $1 million in repairs and the city doesn’t want to “tie up every dollar for the library in bricks and mortar.”

Hilton earlier this year proposed the idea of looking at Warren as a way to preserve the city’s library services in a time of fiscal constraints.

The Warren building had housed a private library for more than 130 years before closing in 2009. The 14,500-square-foot structure had been renovated before its closure.

The 17,000-square-foot Walker library is located less than a mile from the Warren library and is the city’s public library. The historic Queen Anne-style building was donated to the city by local businessman Joseph Walker Jr. in 1894.

The Walker board is urging the city to make the repairs, funding them over two or three years.

“We owe it to ourselves as a city to take care of this magnificent gift,” Miles said.

Hilton stressed this week that she is still gathering information. “I’m certainly exploring all kinds of options, as well as repairing Walker,” the mayor said.