LS&S Withdrawal Raises Concerns Over BOS4’s Handling of Library Plans

I found it hard to understand why Library Systems & Services (LS&S) suddenly walked away from free money. When they were first approached, a quick search for “Front Royal library” probably made them think that they had found gold. A bunch of puffed-up hillbillies in charge of a county’s tax money who were willing to throw away hundreds of thousands of dollars just to prove that they were the big dogs in town. So LS&S came running. The Board of Supervisors (BOS4) pushed the process as fast as they could. But, just before time to approve the contract it was suddenly pulled to fine tune it. What could require such a drastic response from the BOS4?

I think they had expected to use the termination clause as some kind of “get out of jail free card,” but someone had finally noticed that the clause required a written notice of 180 days prior to the termination of the contract. Yes, the county would have to wait six months to actually cancel the contract. That would have been worth roughly $500K to LS&S plus the $250K on top of that. So why did LS&S walk away? Did the BOS4 try to remove that six-month wait period from the contract? Was that what needed fine-tuning? Did they actually think LS&S would agree? In the end they chased away their one alternative to Samuels. They had managed to find someone else who would not be bullied and bow down to their small group. Isn’t that the reason behind Mr. Jamison’s 25-minute rant? He should be grateful to LS&S for exercising common sense. The BOS4 would be the ones legally responsible for deliberately wasting tax dollars.

The BOS4 and the small group they represent are willing to destroy Samuels and leave the county without a library just to satisfy their egos. It cannot be said often enough that this group does not own the county and is not entitled to control it for its own private purposes.

What if a group of county residents decided that they needed to take control of the education of all those homeschool students? After all, how many women can teach 5 or 6 subjects to umpteen children at different grade levels, plus keep house and provide meals to the family?  You would probably say that would never happen. We have no right to do so just because we live here and are concerned for the children. But the same applies to the BOS4 and their group. Just because they live here is not sufficient reason to justify bullying everyone else. Just because Christendom College is here gives them no more rights than anyone else. We know they don’t have the numbers to claim a majority, else the BOS4 would have agreed to a referendum.

Barbara Hunt
Warren County, VA

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