Culver community hopes to shelve library drama

 

MARSHALL COUNTY, Ind. -- The Culver community is beginning a new chapter.

“We feel like we can really move forward,” says Karen Boland, Board Member for the Culver-Union Township Public Library Board.

This comes after several leaders at the Culver-Union Township Public Library resigned from their positions over the weekend following public criticism of long-time librarian Esmie Rodgers being terminated. 

“Six hundred people said, ‘We need to look into this,’ so I feel really good about our community going forward,” Boland says.

The series of resignations leaves Boland, who did not support Esmie Rodgers' termination, as the only active board member as of Monday. She says a quorum should be formed quickly in order to move forward.

“We’re going to be able to rebuild the library and really increase our transparency and really our community involvement,” Boland assures.

ABC57 obtained the resignation letters of the two library directors and three library board members that resigned on Saturday, including the president who was originally the focus of Monday's public hearing.

Words like ‘bullying', 'cancelled', and 'hate’ used in some of those letters to describe people's reactions to Rodgers' spontaneous layoff after 16 years serving the library.

“It’s really, really blessed that people around me are 100% and they push me through all the way,” says Esmie Rodgers, former Youth Services Manager at the Culver-Union Township Library.

Boland looks forward to leaving the past in the past and keeping the needs of Culver’s children at the forefront.

“People in the community, they’re extremely interested in being board members, or volunteering, or whatever we need done to get back on track,” explains Boland.

"Now we’re going to go forward in a positive way,” Rodgers says.

Boland hopes within a month or two the library board will be filled back up. Rodgers hopes to be hired back on once the board is filled, but will continue to do her story times at the Culver Coffee Company in the meantime.