Questions to Board of Supervisors Need to be Answered

Dear Members of the Warren County, VA Board of Supervisors:

In the over 20 years that I have lived in Warren County, I’ve found two reasons to appreciate living here. One is the natural beauty, including one of the United States’ best national parks, Shenandoah. The other is Samuels Public Library. One was created by nature and the other is the result of over two centuries of caring, sharing and hard work performed by generations of Warren County residents. Our library’s origins predate the county itself. When the county was founded in 1836, the library had already been operating for decades. In 2024 Samuels Public Library was named the Best Library in Virginia. Does that not make you proud? Like most of you on the Board of Supervisors, I’m not originally from Warren County, I didn’t grow up here, but I am very proud of the library that did.

Samuels would not have earned that recognition if it was not functioning with excellence. The library doesn’t just fulfill its mission of bringing “people, information, and ideas together to enrich lives and build community “, it shines at it. You, the Board of Supervisors have publicly recognized that reality and complimented them on it. That is what is so baffling about the effort being made by four of you to create a county library board and switch things up by having Samuels compete with that new county board for county resources. The reasoning put forth in your Library Debrief presentation just doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. I believe you realize that and I’m not interested in going over the details here because it is a waste of time and time is important right now

Each of your terms has a time limit but repercussions of changes you make during your term will be felt for years. If you add a county board to govern library services in the county, it will require the establishment of an entity to perform those library services. What is your plan for doing that? Would you evict Samuels from 330 E. Criser Road and use that space for the same services to be performed there by another organization? It was built to do that so it’s quite suitable. Then you would need the tools to perform library services starting with a collection of books and other media to lend to the county citizens. Followed by check out equipment, tables, etc. And, oh yeah, staff! I think the bill is going to run up pretty darn fast. The citizens of Warren County are due a thorough and complete outline of how this will be carried out. It is a big deal and one that most reasonable people would probably label as nonsense.

Meanwhile, the long-established Samuels Public Library with its stellar collection, smooth operations, outstanding staff, amazing volunteers and grateful patrons, would be homeless until a new place is found to house it.

Disarray would follow and the people of Warren County would be without library services until everything settled. That would likely take years.

If the end result is a smaller Samuels Public Library and a new County Library operating without better service but certainly at a greater cost to the tax payers of this county, what good will have been accomplished? It is your duty to think about that. With their votes, the people of your districts put you in charge of the business of the county. You owe them your best, responsible and most caring work. This reckless plan is not that. It will do harm and your vote to implement it will be a stain on your name. I urge you to think hard about it and try instead to do something that will actually enrich the lives of your voters, the citizens of Warren County.

Kelli Hart
Warren County
North River District

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