The Lake Elmo City Council voted to secede from the Washington County library system. Now everybody is mad at us — lots of negativity in the press … I feel like I have joined some kind of mafia gang. I wrote this letter to the editor of the Pioneer Press.
“Bravo to the Lake Elmo City Council for establishing its own library. The county system has been whittling away at our little library for years until now it is almost nothing and it would have been nothing come January 1. This is not a good value for the quarter million Lake Elmo residents pay in library taxes.
Of course, the council knows they must find a way for residents to use the other libraries in the MELSA system, even if it means using some of that revenue to buy each household a library card.
There are many ways to have a viable library system that includes disparate communities. The Stafford Library is appropriate for the community of Woodbury. However, here in Lake Elmo we are trying to preserve our village and small town feeling. Now we have a chance to create a library from scratch that reflects and serves this community. ”
This is the little library on our main street. The county is closing it on Dec. 31.