The Cultcha

Despite tax-payer outcry, local library demanded to circulate homosexual books. So the county axed its budget

By Gregory S. Schneider The Washington Post

Published March 7, 2025

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The Warren County Board of Supervisors escalated its war with the local public library this week, voting 4-1 against renewing annual funding in a dispute that some supervisors say is about quality of management but that library supporters say is driven by opposition to LGBTQ-themed books.

Samuels Public Library, honored as the 2024 Virginia Library of the Year by the state library association, faces an uncertain future when its county budget allocation runs out June 30. It is the only public library serving this county about 75 miles west of Washington at the upper end of the Shenandoah Valley.

The library's leaders "no longer have the best interest of this community at heart and should play no further role in the management of this county's public library system," Eric Belk, chairman of a new county board formed to exert control over the library, told supervisors at a meeting Tuesday night.

A large crowd of library supporters urged the supervisors not to vote against renewing the budget agreement, and several cried "Shame!" after the vote was taken.

"The disappointment in all of this is that a long-standing partnership between Samuels Library and Warren County supervisors that has been in existence since 1978 has come to this," library trustee president Melody Hotek said Thursday. "We're going to have to figure out some strategic planning on what our next moves are."

Samuels Public Library is run by a nonprofit group that is governed by a board of trustees appointed from within the community. The library's roots are among the oldest in the state, stretching back to 1799, and it has functioned as a nonprofit partner with the county for decades. The county's annual allocation of about $1 million accounts for the majority of the library's funding, but Samuels also gets state funding and money from private contributors.

By voting to stop the renewal of county funding, four supervisors said they want to hold a competition for a new library vendor. Samuels can reapply, they said, and could continue operating the facility on a monthly basis until a new arrangement is reached.

"Tonight's vote is merely opting out of an automatic contract renewal, which preserves options for the county," supervisor Richard A. Jamieson said before Tuesday night's vote. "There will not be one second of time in Warren County when library services are not funded. Claims of defunding the library are aimed at creating public alarm and turmoil."

Jamieson, a longtime Samuels opponent who was elected to the county board in 2023, spent last year compiling a report outlining what he said was mismanagement by the library's leaders. His effort drove the creation of the county library board, which was appointed by the supervisors in January and charged with determining Samuels's fate.

Jamieson and others on the board were connected with a local religious group that flooded Samuels Library with challenges to LGBTQ-themed books for young people in 2023, overwhelming library staffers as they tried to process each complaint. Belk, the chairman of the county's new library oversight board, filed challenges to four books, library records show.

The book opponents attended county board meetings demanding action to control the library, and supervisors withheld part of the library's funding in 2023. But after Samuels's leaders made several changes to accommodate concerns about children having access to books with sexual themes - rearranging shelves and creating new levels of library cards so parents would have more control - the supervisors released the funding and praised the library.

That détente didn't last after Jamieson was elected to the board of supervisors that fall. He and others on the board say they are concerned that the public/private partnership is not providing efficient services to the county or allowing county officials enough control over their investment.

But library supporters believe the question of control is aimed at books.

"They don't want to see or hear anything other than what their ultimate agenda is, which is to take control of the public library in Warren County so they can remove books. I don't care what they say, that's what their agenda is," library director of operations Eileen Grady said.

The county's aggressive move raises a number of practical questions. Samuels Library contends that the county's funding has paid for staff and some facilities costs, while state money and private donations have bought the books - meaning the county doesn't own them. The library trustees recently changed their bylaws to state clearly that Samuels will determine what happens to its contents if the county manages to dissolve the library. Samuels also has a lease on the county-owned building that has about 14 years remaining.

The Samuels trustees have sued the county over its formation of a library board, contending that supervisors did not follow guidelines for public notice, made last-minute changes to the ordinance creating the board and that the operating agreement is between the library and supervisors, not a separate board. Because the trustees believe the county library board is illegitimate, their lawyer has advised them not to meet with the new body.

On Tuesday night, Belk told the supervisors that the refusal to meet and the change in bylaws are part of a pattern of resistance and disingenuous behavior on the part of the Samuels leadership.

"All of these actions had absolutely nothing to do with the preservation of a free public library in Warren County, Virginia, but everything to do with Samuels Library Incorporated's own self-preservation at the expense of the citizens of Warren County," Belk said.

County supervisor Cheryl Cullers cast the only vote against the plan, saying "the amount of misinformation being spread … [about the library] is beyond reality." The library is beloved in the community, she added, and has been transparent and sound in its finances.

"There's no way that a new contractor can be brought in without disruption of … services," Cullers said. "This whole issue has been so rushed through with no care or concern to the collateral damage to the county and community. This should not be a political or a religious issue, there's separation of church and state for a reason."

Cullers moved to renew the library's contract and place a referendum on the November ballot so residents could decide if they want a new direction. Her motion failed for lack of second.

By the next day, Hotek and the library team were fielding questions from concerned patrons, touching base with all the trustees and preparing to consult with lawyers to plan a way forward. One approach, Hotek said, would be to raise enough private money to continue operating without county support.

One way or another, she said, "we fully intend to be open on July 1 and keep going."