Which Way Will the County Supervisors Move in Wake of LS&S Cancelling its Offer to Provide Public Library Services Here?

Warren County Administrator Ed Daley has confirmed that Library Systems & Services (LS&S) has rescinded its offer to provide public library services to the county government. Daley forwarded the media a brief, three-sentence note from LS&S Regional Director Mark Kunin to the County’s Library Board, which read:

“Thank you for initially selecting LS&S to operate the library in Warren County on June 3rd, 2025, per the RFP issued April 4th, 2025.

“At this time, we are withdrawing our proposal and will not be offering our services to Warren County.

“Should you need any further documentation, please advise.”

Royal Examiner file photo of County Administrator Ed Daley.

How this may impact the County moving forward towards the July 1st start of the new Fiscal Year 2026 remains to be seen. As reported in our story on the Warren County Board of Supervisors’ Special Meeting on Tuesday, June 24, it appeared that the four-person anti-Samuels Public Library board majority, excluding Cheryl Cullers, was poised to move forward with LS&S as its new public library provider, beginning July 1.

As previously reported, the proposed contract would have been for 10 years and had a first-year cancellation fee of $250,000 to be paid to LS&S, which would reduce by $25,000 per year over the final 9 years of the contract.

However, a hint that something may have been amiss appeared to be given with the one change to approval of the FY-2026 Budget Resolution as submitted by Fork District Supervisor Vicky Cook in her June 24th motion of approval of the $93,440,000 FY-2026 Warren County budget.

“I move that the Resolution approved for the Fiscal Year 2025 and 2026 budget appropriating funds for Warren County, Virginia, be adopted with the following changes: That the appropriation sending $1,024,000 to the Warren County Library Board remain in the budget, but not appropriated at this time.”

That amount matches the request to the county government for Samuels Library’s adjusted funding submission for FY 2026.

As reported in our sub-header “Library funding in Limbo?” follow-up to the above budget motion adjustment in our June 24 meeting story: “Exactly what the implication and motive for that change is remains to be seen.” Now we know.

We just don’t know how the supervisor majority will react to this development, particularly with the aura of potentially expensive, hostile litigation looming with Samuels on a number of fronts if the supervisors continue to seek an alternate public library provider.

Among the legal variables cited are the remaining 14 years on Samuels dollar-a-year lease on the County building it now occupies, and the Samuels claim of ownership of all the books and other operational assets inside the library. That claim is due to Samuels citing the purchase of those assets made with Endowment and donation funds, as well as from grants received at the State level, not county taxpayer money.

It has been noted that LS&S was selected from two submissions the County received in response to its Request for Proposals (RFP) on library services. Our understanding is that, due to its 501(c)(3) non-profit status, Samuels could not respond to the RFP, risking loss of its corporate status at the State level if it did so.

County Administrator Daley told Royal Examiner that the Board of Supervisors will discuss the library situation at its regular meeting of July 1, currently scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. (a closed session has been added at 6 p.m.) That discussion is likely to be in Closed Session with County Attorney Jason Ham present. Board Chairman “Jay” Butler confirmed Daley’s info on the July 1 meeting. Chairman Butler refused to hazard a guess on a direction forward on the library issue until that group discussion takes place.

However, any action taken in the wake of the Closed Session would come during the open portion of the meeting. As noted above, the newly released July 1 regular meeting agenda of the WC BOS confirms the convening of a closed session at 6 p.m., primarily for discussion of the library contractual situation and surrounding variables. The open meeting is still scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.

Click here to watch the June 24, 2025, Board of Supervisors Meeting.