“As we’ve been looking into Liberty Twp., we’ve looked into Monroe,” said Cari Hillman, MidPointe spokeswoman.
Since January of this year, MidPointe has contracted with Henkle Schueler Realtors in Lebanon for real estate services including finding prospective sites for a new branch to serve residents of Liberty Twp. and Monroe, Hillman said. No location has been selected yet.
Hillman said MidPointe does have a $500,000 donation from an estate in Monroe that has been designated to support the establishment of a MidPointe library in Monroe. Hillman said when the time comes to use the funds, they must be spent within the city of Monroe.
“Because we’ve been gifted with this wonderful bequest, we can’t just throw it at something,” Hillman said.
In 2012, MidPointe pursued plans to renovate the former IGA at 601 S. Main St. in Monroe. Those plans were nixed because MidPointe and the property owner, Munafo Seven Inc., couldn’t reach an amicable lease agreement.
Hillman said the library would have invested more than $1 million into the renovation project with only an option to lease the building for 10 years.
“The board felt for that kind of money after 10 years didn’t seem like the correct path for us,” Hillman said. “(But) establishing a location in Monroe is still a possibility.”
Walter LaMance, a 30-year resident of Monroe, said he would support a MidPointe branch in Monroe. For the past decade, LaMance has taken his grandchildren to the Trenton branch, but said he would like to see a location open in his own community.
“We have a lending library that is okay but it’s not a real library,” LaMance said.
LaMance said it’s the variety of resources available at a fully-operating library that would prove most useful for the Monroe community.
“There’s a lot of kids who don’t have access to Internet and computers,” LaMance said. “Monroe is a growing, thriving community and to me a library is a resource a thriving community shouldn’t be without.”
The MidPointe Library System has more than 128,300 cardholders and circulated more than 3.74 million items across its three branches in 2013.
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