The board of the North Riverside Public Library is considering opening the library’s doors to residents of Hines.
The board has been thinking about the possibility since its October 2023 committee of the whole meeting, when discussion of the topic appeared as an agenda item for the first time. Natalie Starosta, the library’s director, said the library board first began considering the move after looking at a map of local library districts but that the board has not yet reached a decision.
“The board has noticed in the map that the Hines area is an unserved area by any library,” she said Thursday. “Currently, no library serves that area, so that’s why it was on the agenda. It will stay on the agenda as they continue thinking about it and looking at it, but right now, no, there is no move to add Hines or anything else.”
Starosta said the board’s discussion of the potential annexation was also spurred on by the knowledge that K-8 students who live in Hines attend Komarek School in North Riverside.
According to the October 2023 committee of the whole meeting minutes, the library board’s attorney estimated at that meeting that the annexation would cost the library $12,000-$15,000. It was also stated at that meeting that the annexation would require a referendum.
Discussion of the annexation was again listed as an agenda item for the committee of the whole meeting in November 2023, but the meeting minutes show the discussion was tabled for the next meeting in February. At that meeting, the discussion was once again tabled, and it subsequently appeared on the agenda for the March meeting.
This isn’t the first time the North Riverside Public Library has considered expanding its service area. In the summer of 2004, North Riverside annexed the Illinois National Guard Armory at the corner of Cermak Road and South First Avenue.
“But the library didn’t,” Starosta said. At least, not at first. She said the library only annexed the area “a few years ago” so that the boundaries of its district would match the area of North Riverside once again.
If the library board does decide to annex Hines, Starosta said she wasn’t sure how the move would affect the library’s operations.
“It’s going to depend on their population, and, quite honestly, if they were part of our district, we would serve them just like everyone else,” she said. “They would have access to everything that’s in the library, all of the programs that we do currently, all of our digital resources.”
Even if the board does move forward with the idea, Starosta said it would not happen “overnight.”
“It’s definitely going to be a long-term project if the board decides that they want to pursue it,” she said. “It’s something that we need to work with the community [on] and make sure everyone understands the process and how we move forward with this.”
