Marthasville aldermen voiced support for a new “tiny library” in the city at their meeting last week, as well as for following through on past plans for a permanent library branch.

Shirley Brewer, a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), spoke at the July 15 Board of Aldermen meeting, saying the DAR is campaigning to establish tiny libraries in communities nationwide that don’t already have them. She said she has enough books to initially stock a small “bring a book, leave a book, take a book” style library box for Marthasville, and she would pay to build it.

Although Mayor David Lange noted that Marthasville already has one tiny library on Brookside Drive, near the intersection with Country View Lane, as well as a tiny food pantry, he and other officials said they would support Brewer’s plan. They also said they hoped the project might get the attention of Scenic Regional Library and revive interest in the library system establishing a brick-and-mortar Marthasville branch.

“We’ve reached out to the Scenic Regional Library a few years back about them having a downsized library here. We went through a bunch of different things with them and just never could come to an agreement that they want to spend their time, resources and money in the city of Marthasville, and that never really took off the ground,” Alderman Nick Lange said.

“This might be a good way to show them that, you know, this could be something at least to get started headed in that direction, where we could actually get a brick-and-mortar library in town and it would make sense.”

Scenic Regional Library acquired more than 2.5 acres of land along Highway 47, south of the Marthasville Dollar General, in August 2022.

“We’re the only municipality in the library district that hasn’t got a library,” Mayor Lange said, adding that Marthasville taxpayers have been paying taxes to the library district for years and Scenic Regional has spent millions on facilities in other communities.

“Actual zip code area, we have more people in and around surrounding Marthasville than New Haven, but New Haven’s got a library branch, and it’s just not fair to the taxpayers in the library district in this area that they don’t have a branch down here,” he said.

As for Brewer’s tiny library proposal, Alderman Chris DeVore told her he would “absolutely welcome something like that” and Alderman Leo Meyer said it would be OK with him. 

Nick Lange said, however, that a tiny library should not be seen as a substitute for a permanent facility.

“If Scenic Regional Library says ‘Well, we’re not going to build a library now that you guys have got your tiny libraries,’ that would be very facetious of them considering the amount of money that they get from us,” he said.

Scenic Regional Library Director Steve Campbell told the Record that the library system is continuing to watch population growth in southern Warren County.

“Marthasville is still on our radar, for certain,” he said in a text message, although he added that the library system is facing new financial challenges that hadn’t yet emerged when it bought the Marthasville property.

“We do have serious future revenue concerns with Senate Bill 3 passing. We are closely monitoring the court challenges to the bill. It would have a serious negative fiscal impact on the library,” Campbell said.

He added that the library system still has a lot of debt to pay off from previous construction projects. “That’s a factor, too,” he said.

David Lange said Scenic Regional Library District at one point proposed installing a book vending machine, similar to a Redbox video rental kiosk, instead of building a library branch in Marthasville, which he did not see as an acceptable alternative.

“Everybody else got a library branch,” he said. “We’re entitled to one, too.”

Brewer was approaching the aldermen about the tiny library idea for the first time July 15, and did not have a proposal for a specific location. City officials said there was no ordinance against tiny libraries on private property, and the city might be able to provide a public location for the tiny library as well. They encouraged Brewer to come back with a more specific proposal at their next meeting.