LLANO COUNTY, Texas — Over the past year, controversy has surrounded the Llano County Library system.
In April, a lawsuit was filed against several county leaders claiming it had been restricting and banning certain books from its public library system. Now, a new controversy has taken shape.
On Sept. 6, Llano City Council discussed a potential trade deal with the County, which included discussions of the library property being traded to the City. Llano Mayor Kelli Tudyk said the County had brought up the library property potentially being included in a trade deal involving multiple properties, so the City discussed possible options for that property.
But she told KVUE on Sept. 13 that the library was no longer a part of the trade deal. She said it was “not being considered, just discussed.”
Llano County runs the library system, so if that were to have happened, it would have no longer have been a library. In that meeting, the City of Llano discussed the library potentially being turned into a new city hall building.
"They said the County had possibly offered up this building as part of a trade deal and the City had looked at that and was possibly considering changing this building onto a city hall,” said Leila Little, who was at the meeting.
Little is a patron of the library and also the president of the Llano County Library System Foundation advocacy group.
Little said the City of Llano was being transparent with the community about the potential trade deal.
She said the Llano County Library System Foundation was created in 2012 when budget cuts to the library were happening. She said not much has improved in 10 years, as she says the library is still in need of more County support. Little is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against County leaders claiming they restricted and banned certain books. She said when she heard about the library property potentially being traded, she was worried.
“Seeing that this library, which is more than just a building full of books, was offered up as a trade and there was no public information given out about the future of the library system as a whole, that was very concerning for me,” said Little.
This also concerned the head librarian for the Llano Library, Martina Castelan. She spoke to KVUE, saying she was willing to risk her job and speak out in order to stand up for the library that she loves. She has worked at the library for three years and has been the head for librarian for one year.
Castelan said she feels the County has not been supporting the library and that they have been at the center of a culture war in town. She said she grew up coming to the library and that it was her safe space. She wants that for other people as well.
Castelan said she was told about the potential trade a week ago and was stunned, but not surprised. She believed the County would offer up the library property in a trade to get rid of what she said County leaders see as a problem in their community.
Castelan was not aware the library was no longer a part of the potential trade deal until KVUE informed her of this information we received from the mayor of Llano.
Castelan also shared that she and fellow librarians presented a grievance to Llano County Library Director Amber Milum on Sept. 12, which KVUE received a copy of. It addresses concerns over staffing shortages, safety, lack of transparency and the library operating "outside the guidelines of the current approved policy and procedures."
Despite the City of Llano discussing the County potentially offering up the Llano Library property as a part of the trade deal, County Judge Ron Cunningham sent KVUE a statement that said:
"Approximately two years ago, the City of Llano approached Llano County with an offer to exchange the John L. Kuykendall Center in return for several county owned properties. Since that time there has been an ongoing open dialogue between the parties regarding the possibility of a mutually beneficial exchange of properties. Recently, both parties have authorized representatives to have preliminary discussions regarding the potential exchange of properties.
"While on Sept. 6, 2022, the Llano City Council discussed adding the Llano Library Building as an additional property for consideration in the exchange, at no point has the Llano County Commissioners Court had any formal discussions regarding which specific county properties would be included in the event an exchange of properties for the Kuykendall Center were to occur.
"Llano County intends to continue to operate the library system and in fact just approved the Llano County FY 2022-2023 budget which includes a Llano County Library System operational budget of $448,501.
"Llano County Commissioners Court and the Llano City Counsel work independently and neither governmental agency dictates or controls what topics are discussed in the other agency’s meetings."
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