SEATTLE -- An ugly battle over a prime piece of real estate might leave disabled patrons of the State Library for the Blind out in the cold. KIRO Team 7 Investigative Reporter Chris Halsne brings us exclusive details on a city-state partnership turned sour.

The Washington Talking Book and Braille Library (WTBBL) is located at 9th and Lenora, but perhaps not for much longer. The City of Seattle has told that organization it needs more money or the library has to vacate. That edict comes even after state taxpayers spent millions of dollars buying the building for the blind back in 1995.

The library mails 2,000 audio books to the sight-impaired every day. They run a special radio station and have hundreds of thousands of Braille books.

It is a link to the seeing world for patrons like Kay Burrows. She says she is "sickened" to hear that in 2008, the operation will likely close up shop and move to the Olympia area.

Burrows tells KIRO Team 7 Investigators, "I feel it's very sad. I think the intent of the building is to provide a home for the Washington Talking Braille Library. It serves more than just blind people. Anybody that needs help seeing print gets help here."

The creation of this library began a cooperative agreement between the city and state. A decade ago, lawmakers paid for the building to get the operation going and agreed to give Seattle money to run the place.

Loopholes in the real estate contracts make it unclear what happens to the building if the city quits providing that service. So who gets to keep the improved-valued $13 million building?

The city says "we do."

Secretary of State Sam Reed says that's not fair.

"The Washington State Legislature did not do this just to donate a building to the City of Seattle for any purpose they wanted. They did it for the purposes of this program," Reed says.

Reed says he needs the profits from the sale of the building to go towards creating new and improved services, since the city canceled the contract.

He sent this letter to the Mayor Greg Nickels a month ago, but has not had a reply. It asks the city for "an amicable transfer of the property back to the State" (with an attached quit claim deed).

"If they are no longer going to run that library out of that building, then it is our position, the state, that the state should take back ownership of that building," says Reed. He adds, "The state paid for it, paid for improvements on it, and did it for the purposes entirely for this library function."

Janell Peterson is both a patron of the library and a volunteer. She’s just one of hundreds that are worried about the facility's future.

"I am sick about this battle over this building. I am concerned about all the patrons who have an opportunity to use these services here. I'm particularly concerned about Seattle residents who come to the library, that we can fully access all the materials in that library."

Seattle Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis says "the deed (to the building) is in the name of Seattle." Ceis says his city isn't going to just hand over the building to the state. At the same time, he says negotiations are ongoing.

"It's true that the funding for these services have not increased in six years. Costs go up. The city librarian is saying we can't keep giving you that same level of services unless you're willing to keep up with inflation."

Cies also says his office is "surprised" by the hard line taken by the state and hopes to settle this matter soon.

"The people using these services shouldn't be caught in the middle. I think we can work this out."

According to an Attorney General's opinion, if the City of Seattle won't give the building back, state lawmakers could use "eminent domain" and take the property anyway without compensating anyone. Patrons of the library worry that could cause a big legal fight, which may further erode funding for the sight-impaired.