The roof had intermittent leaks and library services manager Bernie Hawke told the Mosgiel Taieri Community Board in April a full reroofing was required because of deterioration of its fabric.
Such work was estimated to cost $250,000, but the board asked the council to further investigate if the roof could be repaired, as funding for maintenance would be easier to obtain.
A second report to go before the board today includes estimated costings for repair, but city property recommends no reroofing or recoating occur.
Instead, the department would continue to carry out three-monthly roof and gutter cleaning, an annual roof clean and repair, and flashing repair or replacement, at a cost of $6100 per year.
It also proposed to include $250,000 for future capital upgrading in the 2014-15 year to enable a reroofing.
The report stated replacing the roof would address "most" of the leaking issues, would eliminate maintenance costs during the warranty period, and allow the opportunity to reduce the number of skylights and sources of leaking.
However, there was no funding in either the city property or library capital expenditure budgets.
A roof recoating, while cheaper, could cost between $66,000 and $82,0000, the money for which was also not in budgets.
A recoating would also not guarantee to eliminate the source of all leaks, and had a limited lifespan of seven years.
Because of the lack of funds, the status quo was the "only option available", the report said.
