A three-sided squabble has bubbled now for the past two years, and on Tuesday boiled over into the Citrus County commission's chambers.

At issue is a matter of access that the Friends of the Library say they haven't enjoyed recently to a back gate at the deteriorating Historic Hernando School that would let them use their larger trucks to pick up and deliver books for their annual book sale fundraiser.

The Citrus County Historical Society and Hernando Heritage Council are administering day-to-day use of the old school, and the county has granted a 30-year lease of the historic school to the society. The county was given the facility by the Citrus County School Board approximately 10 years ago, which preferred transferring the facility rather than selling or demolishing it.

Since then, the society has sub-leased the building to non-profit agencies, which includes the Friends of the Library, 4-H clubs, Family Resource Center and others. Meanwhile, according to County Administrator Brad Thorpe, state preservation grant money to renovate the main buildings has dried up, and the county has performed work on the facility in the past, and still pays several expenses, to include cutting the grass. The historical society and heritage council have not borne those expenses, he said.

Thorpe was county commission chairman when the lease was originally drafted and approved. He said the costs associated with refurbishing the building was originally intended to be borne by the historical society and heritage council, not taxpayers. Over the course of time, he said, the county began to take on more of the expenses in the renovation of the old school, to include helping drafting grant applications for renovation money, and providing a new roof.

At Tuesday's commission meeting, Thorpe recommended putting the project into the county's Capital Improvement Plan, budgeting for it and using the funds to help renovate the facility. In so doing, the county would essentially take over the aging facility, which commissioners hope will be restored to the point to where the entire grounds would be used for a multipurpose community center when all is said and done. Also, in so doing, county taxpayer money in county commission coffers would be used to fund those efforts.

All sides in the dispute laid out their case before the county commission during the course of a three-hour span. The warring factions also called on the county to do something about the access issue, and each side claims they have financially contributed toward the upgrade of a concrete building that is also on the property, and which is used by the organizations and heritage council.

At one point during the airing of the squabbles, county commission chairman Gary Bartell called for an end to the feuding. "Quite obviously, this isn't working," Bartell said. "Citrus County taxpayers own that building - not groups. What I'd like to see is some kind of resolution to where we can all get along. The way it stands now, we could argue about this all day long."

Thorpe suggested the county begin with a "new slate," and the lease be renegotiated that is more specific about how the building should be used by all sides.

After public comments and further discussion among commission members, Thorpe was tasked with talking to both sides, and seeing if something can't be worked out to deal with access issues. If no agreement is reached, county attorney Robert Battista will get involved, and the county, which is the landlord for the facility, will decide what must be done next. Commissioners were reticent to exercise a legal option, but did not rule it out completely.

Chairman Bartell admonished all at the meeting, "If it's not that way (unfettered access for all), then it's a breach of contract, as far as I am concerned."

There is also another option, which was offered by former school board official Patience Nave, who was serving at the time the property was transferred to the county. She said if agreement can't be reached between the parties, she could go back to the school board to recommend that the school board exercise a "reversion clause" that was included with the transfer of the property to the county that would take the property back from the county.