Library committee to seek funding from TK, townships for study

November 18, 2023

Greg Chandler, Sun and News 

A committee that is looking to bring a standalone public library to Middleville will ask Thornapple Kellogg Schools and two townships to contribute funding toward a feasibility study.

The Middleville Library Committee Wednesday decided to approach the TK school district, as well as the boards of Thornapple and Yankee Springs townships, to ask for contributions toward having consultant Keith Hopkins put together a study to determine whether a new public library is feasible in Middleville.

The committee earlier this month asked the Middleville Village Council for a contribution of $10,000 to $15,000 toward the expected $25,000 cost of the feasibility study.

“It was met favorably, but they would like someone to reach out to the townships and the school to see if they’d be willing to also support it,” Village President Mike Cramer said. “If they don’t, it’s not a big deal. I feel like I could push (a village contribution) through, with Trustee) Makenzi (Peters”) help.

“It’d be nice, because they have a vested interest in this, having constituents that are going to be serviced by this library… If all four of us contribute, it’d be $2,500 a municipality.”

The Friends of the Middleville Library have proposed contributing $10,000 from its Beacon Society fund toward the study, and are seeking a grant of $15,000 from the Thornapple Area Enrichment Fund as well.

Committee Chairman Josh Mosey said he would visit Thornapple Township to make a funding request, while committee member Chris Boysen, a Yankee Springs resident, will visit that township to make a similar request. Brenda Hess, the TK board representative on the committee, will request her school board colleagues.

In other business Wednesday, Hopkins gave a presentation to the board regarding how to proceed with a feasibility study. Hopkins has worked on past library development projects in Caledonia, Ada, Wyoming and Grand Haven. 

“All of them did (feasibility) studies, all of them decided we need to determine whether or not the donor community wants this, and if so, to what degree,” Hopkins said. 

Hopkins recommended that the committee have a proposed site in mind for a new library rather than several different potential locations    . 

“The problem with that is, usually the donors are going to say let’s just go to the cheapest site, which one’s the least expensive, which may not be the best or most accessible,” he said.

An existing residential four-plex on property owned by the village had been identified earlier as a potential site, but concerns have been raised about flooding because of its proximity to the Thornapple River. Several other village-owned properties could be looked at as potential sites, including the 112 E. Main property east of Village Hall, which had been proposed for a mixed-use development project several years ago.

Boysen voiced concern about whether voters would support a millage to pay for library operations if donations for building a library could be collected.

“We can make a case for actually getting a space, but will the people support it operationally?” Boysen asked. 

Hopkins shared that Caledonia library supporters contacted him after a failed millage attempt in 2005. 

“They said, ‘Hey, we can’t get all this through taxes. We need to separate the building from the operation, so we can bring the operational millage down,”” Hopkins said. “We raised the money. They hadn’t yet built the building but they had the money to build it. Then they went back to the voters (in 2009) and said ‘Okay, we raised the money for the building’ – that means the operational millage is skinnier – and it passed 3-to-1 … Because they had listened to the voters and went out and raised the money for the building, they were able to pass the operational mill-age.”

“The way they sold that millage said, ‘Hey, it’s 100 bucks per home. For 100 bucks you can have five books, which you can buy on Amazon, or you can have all the books (in a library) …and programming and computers,” Hopkins added. 

The current Middleville library is in Thornapple Kellogg High School. However, the library is only open to the public 12 hours a week during the school year – two evenings a week and a Saturday.

The library committee is not scheduled to meet again until January 2024.