30/09/2026
We read 51 years of Alamance County Library Committee (ACLC) minutes and agendas, from 9/23/1975 to the most recent meeting of 8/11/26, so you don’t have to!
Please join us at the next Board of Commissioners Meeting 10/5/26 in the Commissioner Meeting Room at Alamance County Office Building, 124 West Elm Street, Graham, NC 27253!!! Make public comment, let your voice be heard, and do not let the Commissioners keep you from reading or close the libraries!
tl;dr Alamance County’s Library Committee has bumbled along happily for almost 50 years without political intrusion; but in 2023 politics invaded as Commissioners Steve Carter, Kelly Allen, and Ed Priola started appointing members to the Committee in order to limit what residents are allowed to read and seem to be working towards a goal of closing the Alamance County Libraries. The Commissioners (except Pam Thompson) have repeatedly refused to discuss anything about the Library Committee despite many requests from their constituents and colleagues!
https://commissioners.alamancecountync.gov/home-1/commissioner-contact/
The Library Committee has been through many names and changes- starting as a board of trustees (May Memorial Library Board) and becoming simply an advisory committee called the Alamance County Library Committee, one of whose most important duties was “to help advocate for the library to the [County Commissioners, Friends of the Library, Governor, Lt Governor, State and Federal Representatives]” (12/3/19). According to Commissioner Carter, the Library system “had the support of, pretty much, all the Commissioners.” Sadly, politics eventually tarnished the good intent of the Committee beginning in 2023. Before that time, dating back to the earliest minutes we were able to locate, the ACLC members were nominated by the cities of Graham, Mebane, and Burlington City Councils and approved by the Board of Commissioners with little to-do. In fact, the one time in 6/27/79 that the Commissioners decided against appointing a nominated member, an entire paragraph was devoted to the issue in the ACLC minutes!
Things took a change for the worse in 2023 when the work of the Alamance County Library Committee became devoted almost solely to the censorship/removal/relocation/stickering/labeling (pick your description) of LGBTQ books under the lead of Cheryl Sanford, Lindsay McKinney, and Paula Hendricks.
On 6/30/22 Lindsay McKinney and Cheryl Sanford were quoted in the Alamance News as objecting to a PRIDE display. Sandford said there was a children’s book in the library that had two male bunnies who married each other and stated “All books with the LGBTQ+ sticker should be shelved in the adult section of the library. Books of every reading level, regardless of intended audience, should be moved to the adult section.”
11/8/22, a new Statement of Concern policy and form was put in place by the Library Committee that allowed members of the public to object not only to books, but any displays, exhibits, programs, etc, and explained to the public the process and timeline by which such a review would take place after a complaint was issued, such as those made about the Pride display at May Memorial. Paula Hendricks was the lone vote against this policy and instead requested that the library look through the library catalog for the 850 books on the Krause List (a list of books created by a Texas politician that focused on race, sexuality, and gender). On 5/9/23, the Library Director declined to have library staff search the catalog for each book, as this information was easily available to the public through the Library Catalog.
The Alamance News noted 8/24/23 that “the Alamance Board of Commissioners unanimously tapped Cheryl Sanford to fill one of the county’s three allotted positions on this multi-jurisdictional advisory board. Sanford was formally elevated to the library committee along with returning members Paula Hendricks and Jessica Simmons – to the exclusion of a third incumbent, Shannon Witherow, who had also been among the nine applicants for the three available posts.” Commissioner Steve Carter’s endorsement “came despite a contrary proposal from Commissioner Pam Thompson who serves as a liaison between the board of commissioners and the county’s library committee… and had initially endorsed the three incumbents in view of their greater experience [and the education of incumbent Shannon WItherow who was pursuing a Masters in Library Science].” There were some questions also as to whether Sandford, especially, was appointed for her anti-LGBTQ views.
11/7/23 Cheryl Sandford, now as a board member, raised the issue of putting labels on LGBTQ books in the children’s department, the mobile library and the BookMARK so that they could be identified. The County Attorney weighed in on the issue of labeling LGBTQ books 2/13/24 and 5/14/24 in terms of the legalities of whether the Library Committee had the authority to create policy or procedures, but did not opine on the legality of marking books specifically as LGBTQ-friendly. 5/14/24 Paula Hendricks raised the question, of “why the books could not be rated, like movies. [The Library Director] said the difference is there’s actually a nation-wide group that categorizes the age and gives the rating to the movies. When it comes to books, there is nothing like that.” Meaning that, a group of local untrained volunteers would be left to decide what was and was not appropriate for your children to read.
11/12/24 Library Committee meeting minutes note “New committee members [including Lindsay McKinney] were provided explanations of the ongoing conversation that has led to the request for a LGBTQIA+ sticker.” Since the question of putting stickers on LGBTQ books had dominated Library Committee discussions for an entire year, a special meeting of the Library Committee was called 1/31/25 to discuss the stickers. More than 50 members of the public attended the meeting to speak about the targeting of LGBTQ books. Committee members generally denied that any one group was being targeted and the requested stickers were NOT about LGBTQ discrimination despite over a year of specifically discussing LGBTQ books for stickers. Jessica Simmons stated “the committee went out of their way to not focus on one group;” and Cheryl Sandford stated that their intent had been lost and “The intent was not to request the removal of books, or have an age requirement, or to ban books, or limit the books in the children’s section, or suppress constitutional rights.” At the end of the meeting, it was decided that “stickers should be put on [children's/YA] books that contain the following: violence, sexually explicit material, under-age drinking and drugs and/or suicide.” The attack on LGBTQ books hardly stopped with the new regulations though. On 6/30/26, Cheryl Sandford stated “the mere mention of non-hetero characters merited a Parental Guidance sticker for explicit sexual activity.”
Politics reared its head again with appointments, as 8/19/25, the City of Burlington nominated James Shriver (MA of Education) and Sara Blanton (PhD candidate in Literature) but 9/2/25 Commissioner Kelly Allen moved to appoint Debbie Johnson (no background in education or libraries) and Timothy Check (MBA) to the Library Committee and that motion carried unanimously without opposition or discussion that Burlington’s nominated candidates were ignored. On 5/4/26 Mebane nominated Melissa T***s [AP Literature teacher] and Kayla Schilke [Master of English Literature] for the Library Committee, but the Board of Commissioners appointed Carolyn Burns and Steven Squire. Kelly Allen said she talked to the Mayor of Mebane, Ed Hooks, who said he “was fine with both of these” and there was no other discussion of the ignored nominated candidates. {Note: when contacted, Mr. Hooks said he'd given an OK to only one candidate and apologized for it.] 7/14/26 Bonnie Whitaker (Graham City Council person) and Lindsay McKinney were nominated by Graham and 7/20/26 appointed by the Board of Commissioners.
Wait, it doesn’t end there! January 2026, Ed Priola, the Commissioner who proposed closing 3 of the 4 Alamance County Libraries on 5/5/25, has been appointed as the liaison to the Library Committee! Cheryl Sandford, the Vice Chair of the Library Committee, scoffed at the most important role of the library committee by requesting that the Board of Commissioners CUT FUNDING to the Library system on 6/1/26. Commissioner Kelly Allen also stated 9/21/26 that the county spends 3.8 million on the libraries… although it seems a large number, this is only 1.6% of their 239.1 million total yearly budget. The County doesn't spend a dime on programming- all the Summer Reading programs, Children's story times, etc. are paid for by the non-profit Friends of the Alamance Libraries through funds from their semi-annual book sale- to the tune of approximately $70,000 per year. The municipalities were reported as spending “only $591,000” but this only counts for funds that must be reported to the county (utilities and maintenance). When we reached out to Graham, Mebane, and Burlington we discovered that the low end of what they are expected to spend this year is $597,000 for utilities and maintenance (May Memorial needs a new 265,000$ roof) and this doesn’t include building insurance, anything for North Park Library as it is part of the Mayco-Bigelow Center finances, or rent they could be charging on the buildings. Just the property value of May Memorial ($4,166,705) and Mebane ($2,086,497) Libraries is $6,253,202 that the county uses rent free (Graham and North Park’s values could not be calculated as they are part of larger complexes).
Now, you may ask why this matters… voters care about their leaders following the rules! We may not all agree on how they vote or in what way they represent our interests, but it is important that our leaders at least follow the rules as written! OUR COMMISSIONERS ARE NOT FOLLOWING THE RULES THEY CREATED. Dating back to July 2026, public comments have been made and emails have been sent requesting discussion of the Library Committee appointments and/or the Parental Guidance stickers. However, the Board of Commissioners (with the exception of Commissioner Pam Thompson) has repeatedly REFUSED to even discuss the Library Committee on public record. What are they afraid of?
This is clearly an attack on Library funding and Library freedom! Libraries are a public good and politics should have no place in their administration or functioning. The Library Committee and the Board of Commissioners as they currently stand are limiting what Alamance County residents are allowed to read freely, according to their own personal beliefs, and both the Library Committee and the Board of Commissioners seem to be focused on defunding and closing the library system. The Commissioners (except Pam Thompson) have repeatedly refused to discuss anything about the Library Committee despite many requests from their constituents and colleagues! Please join us at the next Board of Commissioners Meeting 10/5/26 in the Commissioner Meeting Room at Alamance County Office Building, 124 West Elm Street, Graham, NC 27253 !!!
https://commissioners.alamancecountync.gov/home-1/commissioner-contact/
