Thank You for Your Million Dollars, Now Get Out of My Way!

I saw a postcard from a group called “Save Samuels Library.” They said the board of supervisors defunded the library as of July 1, 2025. Actually, the supervisors decided not to let their existing contract automatically renew on July 1 and did not accept Samuels’ budget request for a “big increase.” In truth, they were not funded after July 1, were they?

And, if they were not funded, how could they be de-funded? They couldn’t, and they know that.

I know that the new library board tried to meet with Samuels to go over their staff and budget, but Samuels couldn’t participate because of a lawsuit underway – which they started… So they were their own roadblock to talking with the new board.

I know that the county asked for proposals for the library contract, and Samuels didn’t want to compete and lose their goose that lays the million-dollar egg. That does make sense in a way, because if you can keep a monopoly why risk losing it in a competition?  The problem is that to keep that kind of thing going, you need to have political connections.

The private entity called “Samuels Public Library” (actually Samuels Library, Inc.) hasn’t had “strong political connections” since “Tony Carter” was sleeping through the EDA scandal that blew a $20 million hole in the county coffers… a price that you and I continue to pay, even as you are reading this.

“Tony Carter is the all-time political connection for Samuels,” and they want him back. He had the county pay $550,000 for the old library that Samuels had already agreed the county could use FREE for twenty (20) years… Not really smart for county finances, but great deal for Samuels to cash out of the mutual partnership and build up what is now their “private” $1 million investment fund.

Why doesn’t the library and the political action committee called “Save Samuels Library” ever mention any of this?

Faced with the fact that they didn’t have Tony Carter to lean on, the library stopped their lawsuit in what was described as “good faith”, to start negotiating after the contract was already put out for proposals. Question, if Samuels Library, Inc. stopped their lawsuit in what was described as “good faith, was it started in “bad faith”?

The request for proposal to which Samuels Library, Inc. chose not to respond produced one very strong response from “Library Systems and Services” (LS&S), Strong Libraries Build Community | Library Systems & Services).

By the way, with over 40 years of extensive experience partnering with communities and by balancing cost and services, LS&S has been powering numerous strong libraries throughout this nation… one example being the outstanding job they’ve done with Simi Valley, CA., a town in which I had the privilege to reside for 10 years.

So what does LS&S’s proposal look like? From what the library board’s Mr. Jaques said, it looks like LL&S would keep the fee exactly the same for 5 years and put into the library over a quarter of a million dollars ($250,000 +) in services each year (hard to ask for more than that). Based on a $1 million county budget for the library, that is almost 28% more in services for the same county budget.

A review of this past year’s actions by the “Save Samuels Library” initiative reveals that it is about saving Samuels Library, Inc., the “private non-profit company”, not Warren County’s public library. On their postcard is says “Political Action Committee”. It should say “Propaganda Advancement Committee”.

Folks, for the non-profit company “Samuels Library, Inc, it’s not about books; it is about:

• continuing to weave an alternative to the facts
• getting back political friends that keep Samuels going without any serious financial scrutiny.

It’s important for every citizen in this county to understand the real issues at stake because with virtually no exceptions, we all want a healthy, vibrant and community-oriented public library, but we should also want it to be transparent in its dealings with the county and willing to respond positively to serious financial scrutiny.

You deserve it, your children deserve it, and our future generations deserve it.

Dale Carpenter
Warren County, VA

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