Library folded into county government, trustee board dissolved

At the end of this month, the Prince William County Board of Library Trustees will be no more.

The Board of County Supervisors voted to replace the trustees with a new, all-volunteer advisory board, which will report to the supervisors on library matters, participate in the hiring of a new library director if the position is vacant, as well as make policies governing the library.

Prince William County Supervisors will have the opportunity to appoint members to the new board by September 1. Keith Mueller, who served on the old trustee board, will remain on the new advisory board and will represent Manassas.

Under the old trustee system, all seven of the county’s magisterial districts had a representative, and there was one representative each for the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park.

Earlier this year, Manassas Park ended its 44-year relationship with the library system and decided to erect and manage its own libraries. On August 4, the city opened its new library as part of a $3.1 million deal to establish a public library for its residents.

Neighboring Manassas inked a new deal with the Prince William County Public Library System to open a new library branch at the Wellington Station shopping plaza, at the corner of Grant Avenue and Wellington Road. The Wellington branch is expected to open in February 2021.

Historically, Central Library, at 8601 Mathis Avenue, has served Manassas and Manassas Park residents.

Converted to employees

The county library system is headed in the same direction the parks department did in 2012 when the independent Prince William County Park Authority folded and became a department of the county government. The library, now, too, will be a county department under the supervision of the library director who reports to Prince William County Executive Christopher Martino.

From county documents:

By converting the Library System into the Library Department, library employees will become County employees. As a department, Library employees will join the County’s competitive service and will have the opportunity to participate in a grievance process, which is not guaranteed today under the state or county codes since the Library is part of the County’s exempt service.