Although the new Belleville Area District Library in downtown Belleville and the branch media center in Sumpter Township are locked up tight due to executive orders from Governor Whitmer, the public is using their services anyway.
Besides the many services and virtual story times over the internet, people can sit in their vehicles near the libraries and use the WiFi available.
At Tuesday’s virtual library board meeting, Assistant Library Director Hilary Savage reported that in the last month about 80 people had used the WiFi at the main library and 30 had used it at the branch library in Sumpter.
“It breaks my heart we can’t be there when people need us the most,” said Library Director Mary Jo Suchy.
Board president Sharon Peters said their goal is to get to curbside pickup where people can call in or email the books they would like and the staff would give them an appointment time so they could come pick the books up from a bench without contact.
“That has to be allowed by the governor,” said board member John Juriga, who said he feels bad for the governor since she is getting so much pushback.
“She should!” said board vice president Mary Jane Dawson. “I call her Grinchen.”
Others joined in, both for and against the governor’s executive orders that are now in the 80s. The future of library operations are in her hands.
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