The Fight Over Elk Rapids' Library

Architects drew up designs. Fundraising plans were afoot. State historic preservation officials signed off. Earlier this year, Elk Rapids District Library supporters believed they would soon get permission to build a 6,320-square-foot addition to a building they say they’ve outgrown.

And then this summer, from the perspective of library director Nanette Miller, some ominous signs appeared around town. They read “Preserve Our Island House and Property."

“People didn’t know what it meant — they would come in and ask us, ‘What do those signs mean?’” she recalls.

As Patrick Sullivan writes in this week's Northern Express - sister publication of The Ticker - those signs meant that a small but determined group of village residents had decided they didn’t like the sound of the expansion, and they were determined to stop it. And that’s what they did. At a meeting on Nov. 6, the village council rejected the plans.

When the village council voted 4–3 to ask the library board to come back with smaller plans —for an addition that’s less than 4,000 square feet – the decision left both sides unsatisfied. The Preserve group wanted the expansion voted down outright. Miller thought the library proposal already represented a compromise. To say Miller was disappointed that the plans were not approved would be an understatement. She says the library board worked hard to get public input and come up with a plan that respected the history of the Island House, the 151-year-old building that sits on a 4.8-acre island at the mouth of the Elk River and has been home to the library since 1949.

“Our architects worked very closely with the state historical preservation office so we would not lose the historic marker,” Miller says. “It wasn’t easy. We had a plan we all really liked, and the state historic preservation office said no, so we scrapped all that.”

The library board worked with architects to adjust the plans so that they could win approval with state historic preservation officials, but when they took the plans to the village, things got complicated. “I know that there’s a group of people who are resistant to all change in Elk Rapids,” Miller says. “They have surfaced on a lot of issues.”

Tim Moller, one of the core members of the Preserve group, lives on River Street across from the island. He can see the classic white cottage from his living room. And he wants it to stay as it is. He says Miller and the library board should not have been surprised so many people were upset about the expansion plans because soon after they were announced in summer 2016, he and others started writing letters to the editor to the Elk Rapids News decrying them. “As a result of the public hearings, it was a spontaneous combustion, [and] this committee was formed,” Moller says.

Moller believes expanding the Island House building would do “irreparable harm” to the parklike setting of the island. He also said he doesn’t believe Elk Rapids needs a bigger library because the population isn’t growing. He can’t imagine supporting plans for an addition unless they come back much, much smaller than 4,000 square feet. “They should redefine the existing space they have, and then they should focus on technology,” he says. “They could make the whole island a hot spot.”

Read more about the debate between the two sides in this week's Northern Express story "Elk Rapids Library Brawl." The Northern Express is available online, or pick up a copy at one of nearly 700 spots in 14 counties across northern Michigan.