The last time you used a computer or checked out a book at the Leelanau Township Library, you may not have realized that you were standing in a library that operates differently from almost any other library in the state of Michigan.

Indeed, the Leelanau Township Library is one of just three township libraries statewide that is governed by its local township board. Michigan’s other 98 township libraries all have independent boards of directors, and those boards are entrusted with making the decisions about library finances, improvements, and more.

A group of local citizens in Leelanau Township asserts that the township’s unusual library governance model is holding the library back from growing and evolving. This spring, those residents are pushing for a ballot measure that would bring Leelanau Township Library up to speed with the dozens of township libraries in Michigan that already “operate with their own non-partisan elected board and their own millage.”

The local advocacy group, calling itself “YES! Leelanau Library” (YLL), is currently collecting petition signatures with the goal of getting a proposal on the ballot for the August election. Establishing an independent library board, they say, would bring the Leelanau Township Library not only into step with most other township libraries in the state, but also into compliance with current state law.

Per the YLL group, the statute that enables a township to manage its own library is actually outdated by more than four and a half decades. Public Act 269, the 1955 law that allowed for the township-managed library structure that Leelanau Township currently has, was repealed by the state all the way back in 1976. However, Leelanau Township and several other townships in the state were grandfathered in, which is why a small number of township boards in Michigan continue to manage their local libraries. The township can jettison that governance structure, but only with voter approval.

To get on the August 2 ballot, YLL needs to submit petitions with at least 50 signatures to the township clerk by Tuesday, April 26. Deborah Stannard, a former director of the Leelanau Township Library and the co-chair of the YLL committee, tells the Leelanau Ticker that YLL is in the process of circulating those petitions now, and is aiming to collect at least 200 signatures rather than the minimum requirement of 50. A caveat is that petitions cannot be circulated at the library itself, though YLL notes that the library can direct guests to where they can sign.

If the library matter lands on the August ballot – and if township voters approve it – the structure change would create a six-member non-partisan Leelanau Township Public Library board. Board members would need to be elected, and would be “charged with working with the library director and staff to oversee the library’s operations, policies, and vision.” The board would be subject to the Open Meetings Act and other requirements that the township board already follows. The main difference, Stannard says, is that the library board could focus exclusively on library matters, rather than juggling the library as one of many responsibilities as the township board currently does.

“If we had an independent library board, the sole focus of that board would be the library,” Stannard explains. “They could make decisions and respond to things really quickly. The township has a lot on its plate, and the library is just one little part of that.”

Stannard adds that Leelanau Township is “behind the times” in how its library is structured, and suggests that some of the problems or growing pains the library has faced in recent years likely stem from the township oversight model.

“Recently, we've had a lot of change on our township board, and the new members haven't got the history of the library or any understanding of library law yet. And we've gone through a lot of library directors. I think those factors are showing us that it would be to the library's advantage to have its own board and its own millage.”

Stannard served as library director for Leelanau Township Library for 30 years before retiring in 2017. In the years since, the township has struggled to keep a library director, with both of Stannard’s successors, Nellie Danke and Cora Schaeff, departing after relatively short tenures. Danke is now the library director at Suttons Bay/Bingham Township Library, while Schaeff moved to Bay City and is now the children’s department head at Alice & Jack Wirt Public Library in Bay City. The Leelanau Township Board recently hired Julie Alpers-Preneta to the post – the third library director in less than five years.

YLL argues that shifting the governance of the library would help retain library leadership by providing directors with more of a financial base to grow and operate the library. In addition to providing a board with more of a vested interest in the library specifically, YLL’s suggested ballot measure would include a 0.5 mills proposal that would fund the library for six years. 0.5 mills equates to 50 cents of tax per $1,000 of taxable property value.

According to YLL member Anne Harper, the millage would create approximately $32,000 in extra funding for the library each year, boosting the annual budget from the $206,000 – the amount the township government is currently considering for the 2022-23 fiscal year – to $238,000. Harper says the extra money could be used for anything from establishing longer library hours, to offering more community programming, to buying new books and materials, to covering the costs of library maintenance, upgrades, renovations, and expansions.

Harper says the Leelanau Township Library averages 18,000 “unique visits by individuals and families” each year, and that it loaned 27,500 items out last year alone. The library also proved to be an important resource during the pandemic, tracking some 13,000 wireless connections to its internet network. These factors, Harper argues, show the importance of the library to the local community – and prove that investing in a more favorable future for the library is a worthwhile consideration.

“This is not the first time township officers and community leaders have contemplated a need for upgrading the library’s facility and programs,” Harper says. “But township officials have always chosen to focus attention on other priorities, such as emergency services and sewer obligations. Consequently, the dream of providing expanded services and improved facilities [at the library] has been long deferred. It is time to recognize that our library needs some changes in order to thrive in the coming decades.”

Schaeff says the reason for her departure as library director is many-layered, with lack of housing stock in the area a definite factor. She echoes Harper, citing library renovations on the table for decades that have “always been pushed aside at the township level for items of more importance.” While these may have been necessary township decisions, she notes, “for the library to flourish and grow and remain a healthy part of the community, it needs to have its own board making decisions that are in the best interest of the library.”

Leelanau Township Supervisor John Sanders declined to comment on the efforts of the YLL group to create an independent library board.

Pictured: Poetry night with Teresa Scollon and the kids from Northport’s kindergarten class at story time for National Library week, by Sarah Murphy