When Jackson commissioners on May 5 reviewed a draft document outlining the framework of a new county library board upon departure from Fontana Regional Library system, Commissioner Jenny Lynn Hooper, clad in a Turning Point USA T-shirt, was quick to express her central grievance: “I don’t think [a board member] ought to have a library card.”
Bitter laughter erupted from the audience.
“I feel like that’s kind of a prerequisite to knowing what’s happening in the library, is to have a library card and be active,” responded Chair Mark Letson.
But Hooper wasn’t backing down.
“Well to me, it’s like, do you make people that’s going to be on the ABC Board know all about liquor?” she asked.
Hooper’s comment analogized two independent bodies not typically ripe for comparison. ABC boards in North Carolina are responsible for “controlling the sale of spirituous liquor.” Library boards do not exist to “control” public access to literature nor are members intended to reflect the will of elected leaders. According to the American Library Association, “individually and collectively, Trustees should act as advocates of libraries and present the library point of view to their locally- and nationally-elected legislators and leaders.”
While Jackson County’s draft document doesn’t aim to create an ABC-like body, it potentially leaves room for the board to pursue control of access to books — censorship — depending on who is in charge.
Trustees are volunteers appointed by commissioners whose terms are set to begin the term on July 1. Despite Hooper’s objection, they’re still mandated to possess a library card. Board makeup will use district-specific representation, with two at-large members appointed from recommendations made by the director. Letson on May 5 recommended appointees have randomized and staggered one-year, two-year and three-year terms, which commissioners will discuss at the next meeting. Current appointees must re-apply to be considered for the new July 1 board.
Responsibilities of trustees include making structural recommendations, establishing fines for overdue books, creating an annual budget, enacting rules for non-county resident patrons and advising commissioners about library happenings.
Throughout April, commissioners received 27 applications for temporary trustee positions. Most applicants expressed a deep appreciation for the library.
One prospective trustee wrote, “I really value our library as an important part of our community.”
“The library was one of our favorite excursions,” recounted a second.
“Our library is more than a repository for books. It is a lifeline for many and a safe space for all,” wrote former board member Lauren Baxley.
As for the rest of the candidate pool, all other former members — Lori Richards, Geraldine Martinez and Keith Blaine — fell into the second category of applicant. While serving FRL and JCPL, Richards supported a “juvenile card program” for children ages 15 and younger, requiring “parental consent for use of the library by a minor.” She also proposed a policy to ban “banned book” displays in system libraries. Her motivation to join the board was stated in just three words — “to provide oversight.”
Martinez also backed the juvenile card program and introduced a motion to curtail librarian reports.
“Because both librarians do such a good job of informing us in their reports about the library activities and progress on goals, and since we all have this information to preview prior to attending the meetings, this should enable them to give a brief, perhaps five-minute, summary of their reports at the meeting,” the motion read in JCPL’s February 2025 meeting minutes. Martinez left the “interest in wanting to serve” section blank.
Blaine is an anti-LGBTQ+ activist. He backed JCPL’s withdrawal, routinely expressing misinformation in the process. His reasoning for wanting to join the board came in a list of handwritten bullet points: “provide oversight, evaluate budgets, evaluate policies, evaluate programs, perform book challenge reviews.”
Commissioners also discussed future considerations that didn’t have much to do with the board, leading to further airing of grievances.
“I guess we need to talk to Friends of the Library from Cashiers and see how much they want to help. From that letter we got it didn’t seem like they were going to be very helpful,” said Jennings.
Hooper concurred, taking it a step further. “The letter was pretty threatening,” she said.
Letson said he hadn’t received any such letter. FOL Chair Cathy Maddock sent the email under discussion on Nov. 6, 2025.
“Our Patrons are already angry with the tax increases,” she wrote. “Many will not consider donations or grants to a county run library. As President, speaking for the board, it will be impossible to fund the library under the current circumstances.”
“I am personally willing to help you in any situation I can,” the email also read.
County Manager Kevin King, who had been in communication with Cashiers FOL and did not know commissioners were referencing the seven-month-old letter, pushed against Hooper’s and Jennings’ narrative.
“We have worked with [Cashiers FOL] on filling out six or seven different grants, so they are very active and responsive,” he said.
His words were echoed by new library director Grace Powell, who later approached the podium to inform commissioners about the library side of the equation. She said employees are more reassured because of recent updates, though “there’s still a lot of questions as it would be in any kind of change like this.”
JCPL is working with FRL to fill new staffing positions, she said.
“We’ve also finally identified what’s staying, what’s going,” she added, admitting to “a few odds and ends” — some of which might have had to do with communication, or lack thereof, from commissioners.
“I think [it] is huge for them to know like, OK, ‘What decisions are being made?’” Powell said. She told commissioners the library will be closed July 1-3 as staff prepare the doors to reopen on July 5, following the holiday. She also explained she’d been meeting with NC Cardinal, a statewide interlibrary loan system FRL had participated in and JCPL was looking to get restarted by July 1.
But library patron and public commenter Susan Bogartus said things aren’t quite as they seem with Cardinal operations.
“What [commissioners] were saying when they were talking about having an independent library is, ‘Well, we’ll be part of the Cardinal system, so you can get any book or call all the way across the state. We can get you a book couriered in, no problem.’ And I’m like, ‘I think that’s a myth,’” she told The Smoky Mountain News.
FRL is already part of the Cardinal system. The library could get overnight couriers from Macon and Swain counties, as inter-library transfers are the duty of one staff member.
If Yancey County’s similar departure from a three-county system is any prediction of what’s to come, JCPL is in for Cardinal outages lasting up to a month, the absence of a functional board and relentless turnover.
Even now, before the official transition, it took Bogartus five weeks to receive a book from Haywood County about the Greek language. She’s worried the blame will unfairly fall on the librarians, who have no control over the timeline, but order the book in the state system.
She said commissioners should communicate more clearly about these issues — if not, the staff will bear the repercussions.
“Half our staff left,” Bogartus said, adding that she doesn’t want to lose the other half.