Randolph County commissioners dissolve library board

ASHEBORO — The Randolph County Board of Commissioners voted to dismiss the entire board of the Randolph County Public Library’s Board of Trustees.

Last week’s specially called meeting at the historic courthouse drew about two hours of public comments, with opinions expressed on both sides of the issue regarding a previous decision from the library board to keep a book called “Call Me Max” in the library. The book is about a transgender boy.

The library board’s ruling regarding the book came this fall.

The book reportedly was in the children’s section of the main library in Asheboro.

The decision to abolish the nine-member library board came in a 3-2 vote, with chair Darrell Frye, Kenny Kidd and Lester Rivenbark supporting the move. Commissioners David Allen and Hope Haywood voted against dismissing the board.

Kidd made the motion to dissolve the board.

There’s a possibility of making new appointees to the library board, though that option was unclear at last week’s meeting.

The special meeting drew such a large attendance that those wishing to speak had their names drawn at random and were allotted three minutes to express opinions. Of 40 speakers, it was pretty much even on which side of the issue they took.

The Randolph Public Library’s Board of Trustees is appointed by the Board of Commissioners to six-year terms. The make-up of the library board is supposed to represent a cross-section of the county geographically.

Among the duties of the library board is to approve library policies and make final decisions regarding library materials.

There are seven locations within the Randolph County Public Libraries system.