Leland Library Shares Update On New Addition, Decries Illegal Dumping On Its Premises
This fall will mark a big milestone for the Leland Township Public Library, with Director Mark Morton estimating that construction on the library’s long-gestating new addition will be finished by Halloween. In the meantime, though, the library’s construction site has also become a draw for illegal dumping, with unknown individuals utilizing a building waste dumpster on the property for everything from household trash to kitchen appliances. The unauthorized disposals, Morton says, are adding expenses to the library’s already costly construction project – to the point where he expects security measures will be necessary for the remainder of the buildout.
The Leland Library’s in-progress expansion and renovation has been in the works for the better part of a decade. After the library transitioned from a township governance model to independent operations in 2016, the library’s new board identified “the goal of creating a larger and reconfigured space that better aligns with modern library services” as part of its first strategic plan. The board commissioned a study to track library operations between 2017 and 2022, which ultimately led to the work that is currently underway. Highlights of the project include a new children’s room, multiple new study and meeting rooms, enhanced accessibility features, and more.
Construction has been underway at the library since February. An initial phase required the library to move the majority of its books into temporary storage, to allow for renovation of existing spaces. A brief closure in late May gave library staff time to move most materials back into the newly renovated facility. Construction on the new addition, though, has continued throughout the summer.
“It’s going really well,” Morton says of the construction. “We expect to be into the addition, which will be our new children's room, in the next couple of weeks. And then we're going to close for two weeks, starting September 22, to work on the parking lot and the sidewalks. The sidewalks need to be replaced, and there won't be any easy access to the building for the public. We also have a septic tank that needs to be moved, so we won't have bathrooms available during that time.”
Morton estimates construction “should be all wrapped up” by the end of October. In the meantime, though, he and his team are trying to find a fix for an unexpected problem: a string of illegal dumping incidents on library premises.
Illegal dumping is defined by Waste Management as “the disposal of trash generated at one location and disposed of at another location without legal permission.” Examples include “dumping yard waste, appliances, tires and other garbage in alleys, dumpsters, vacant lots, and open desert locations.”
As with most other construction sites, Morton says the Leland Library currently has a dumpster on its property for construction debris. While not intended or authorized for public use, the bin has become a dumping site this summer, culminating last week when someone disposed of a refrigerator and a dishwasher in the dumpster without permission from the library.
“That was the last straw,” Morton says. “There have been trash bags in there throughout the summer that I’ve known were trash from people’s homes, because we don't even put our library trash in there. We have separate totes for that, because the dumpster is just supposed to be for construction materials. I haven't wanted to pull anything out and dig through it to find a name, so we’ve essentially looked the other way until now. But the refrigerator and dishwasher? That was just too much.”
The latest dumping incident prompted Morton to take to the Leland Library’s Facebook page, where he shared photos of the appliances (pictured) alongside a message noting that the public misuse of the library’s dumpster “has officially gotten out of hand.” The post said the items were likely dropped in the dumpster “late Thursday or early Friday,” and asked anyone who may have seen “a vehicle pulled up to our dumpster” around those times to notify the library.
Illegal dumping is a misdemeanor under Michigan law, and can carry a hefty fine.
“I don't know if anybody would notice something like that, because we are kind of tucked away over here, but I figured I'd put it on Facebook just because I was frustrated,” Morton says of the incident.
For Morton, much of that frustration stems from the cost and inconvenience that unauthorized use of the construction waste bin is causing.
“Those things can’t just be sent to the landfill,” Morton says of the fridge and the dishwasher, noting that refrigerators are particularly difficult to dispose of because of the need to remove refrigerant beforehand. “Our construction supervisor dug the refrigerator out of there on Monday afternoon, and he put it in the back of his pickup truck to take it to Traverse City, to the recycling center. I don't know what recycling a refrigerator is going to cost, but it’s going to cost us something. He took the dishwasher too. And then there’s the fact that these things just take up a lot of space, and getting that dumpster switched out is expensive. It's $400 a pop to get an empty one brought out, and it's not on a schedule. We just call when it’s full.”
To avoid future incidents, Morton says the library will be installing temporary fencing around the dumpster and monitoring the site with a security camera.
“There’s an expense around doing those things, too, but clearly there needs to be some sort of a deterrent to prevent people from doing something like this again,” he says.