PULLMAN, Mich. — A whole bunch of books are now homeless in Pullman, a teeny, tiny community in Allegan County.
At what was once known as the Pullman Free Library, the lights are out on the "open" sign.
“When we got here, we found out that all utilities had been turned off on us," Nicole Dushane said.
Volunteer Nicole Dushane says that Lee Township officials cut the power.
Dushane ran the little library alongside her husband. The library was entirely run by volunteers. It had a fax machine. Dushane and her husband donated computers. Dushane was working on becoming a notary.
“Rob and I decided to revitalize it so it would be a big community effort and a community benefit," Dushane said.
Monday, they started the work of getting all the books out.
“The entire children’s section went to a woman that came and got them for the Boys and Girls Club," Dushane said.
The Fennville District Library's director says they started getting calls of confusion. People thought the little library in Pullman was affiliated with their district branch. It's not.
Nicole maintains they never took a dime of tax money to run the library.
“Not a dime. Not a dime,” Dushane said.
The building for the library does sit on township property. Nicole says the township was paying the electric bill. Now, they're not. The Fennville District Library director says they're the ones who are contracted, and therefore paid, to run library services for people who call Pullman home.
Nicole says the Fennville library is simply too far for too many people.
“There’s a lot of people here who cannot get to that library," Nicole said.
Nicole says the loss is about more than just the lights going out.
“This is devastating. There are so many people that are absolutely devastated by this," Dushane said.
Dushane says she's not sure if she'll be locked out of the building or not.
According to meeting minutes posted online, Lee Township did discuss the fate of the Pullman Free Library at their June meeting. The building is privately owned, but sits on township land. The township stated they cannot be financially responsible for the Pullman Free Library because of this. The township presented the total cost of bills and "informed that the bills that need to be covered include the phone bill that averages around $150.00/ month and the utilities that range between $50.00-$150.00/ month."
The township offered to lease the land for $1 per year.
Follow FOX 17: Facebook - X (formerly Twitter) - Instagram - YouTube
