March 30, 2024
Greg Chandler, Sun and News
An assessment to determine whether there is enough community support to build a standalone public library in Middleville will move for-ward, after organizers were able to raise $25,000 to cover the cost of the survey.
Village Council members in Middleville Tuesday agreed by consensus to have the village contribute $2,500 toward the needs assessment survey, which will be conducted by Keith Hopkins of Hopkins Fundraising & Consulting to determine whether the community has the necessary backing to build and maintain the library.
“It does the work of seeing if it’s something the community wants before we go through the expense of planning and putting it on the ballot … It checks the pulse of the community, to see what they’re looking for,” said Council Trustee Makenzi Peters, who is one of the village representatives on a committee that is looking into the feasibility of a public library that would replace the current Thornapple Kellogg School and Community Library that is inside the high school.
Village President Mike Cramer, who also sits on the committee, proposed the village’s contribution, which would be matched by an equal $2,500 contribution from Thornapple Kellogg Schools. In addition, the Barry Community Foundation has awarded a $15,000 grant to the Friends of the Middleville Area Community Library, and the friends group is contributing another $5,000 from funds that had been previously raised.
“Any money spent on getting the library out of the high school is good money,” Council Trustee Robert Bishop said.
A couple of potential sites have been identified as possible locations for the library – one on Sheridan Street near the village’s wastewater treatment plant and another being a site owned by TK schools that was once the district’s bus garage.
“It is now a storage lot for construction materials and a PaperGator …right behind the post office,” Cramer said Tuesday.
Hopkins will interview local leaders in the proposed service area to see how much support there is for the library project, and report back to the committee with his findings, committee member Josh Mosey wrote in an email to the Sun and News.
Triangle Construction has provided what Mosey calls “rough numbers” on what it could cost to build a library – ranging from $5 million for a 10,000-square-foot building to $7.8 million for a 15,000-square-foot building.
“Keith will let us know if either of those numbers are achievable,” Mosey wrote in his email.
The current library is open to the community only 12 hours a week during the school year – 3:30 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday nights, and 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Saturdays. According to statistics from the Library of Michigan, the TK School and Community Library ranks in the bottom 10 of Michigan’s 394 libraries in terms of the number of hours it is open to the public each year, at only 804 hours for the 2022-23 fiscal year. It also ranks at the bottom for the size of community it serves, Mosey wrote in his email.
“The fact remains that the hours and location of the current public library in Middleville are holding it back from truly serving the needs of the public,” Mosey wrote in his email.
By comparison, the Freeport District Library, which serves a much smaller coverage area than the TK library, was open to the public 1,563 hours during the 2022-23 fiscal year. The Henika District Library in Wayland was open to the public 2,550 hours during that same fiscal year, the Delton District Library was open 2,392 hours and the Hastings Public Library was open 2,976 hours for the 2022-23 fiscal year, according to Library of Michigan statistics.
The library committee is next scheduled to meet on April 17 at the Middleville Village Hall.
Middleville Community Library 