“It is now 5:30. The library will be closing in 30 minutes.”
When I heard the announcement over the intercom, I winced and fought back some emotion.
Because this closing wasn’t just for this one day. It was forever.
I had a half-hour to look around the East Marietta Library on Saturday, the last day the little block two-story building was open to the public after 50 years of dutiful service to a growing, and thriving, community.
The East Marietta Library, located at 2051 Lower Roswell Road, is within walking distance of the house where I grew up, in the Pioneer Woods neighborhood (directly behind Faith Lutheran Church). When I wasn’t at Sewell Park, playing softball or tennis or swimming, I was at the library.
These twin community gems were like a second home, a convenient place to slip away from younger siblings and after-school chores. I didn’t need a parent to ferry me to a place where I could let my imagination roam, whether it was in left field at Sewell Park or the rather roomy shelves of the children’s section of the library downstairs.
I can’t remember how many books I checked out, but I remember taking home more than once a book about “new” journalism featuring Tom Wolfe, and the Baseball Encyclopedia. These were the days when reference books could be checked out, and those volumes became de facto parts of my own library at home, at least for two or three weeks at a time.
The building had been obsolete for years, and it was the subject of a long lobbying campaign to be replaced. Finally, that came about, when Cobb voters included a new facility in the last SPLOST. While I was thrilled, I also knew I would have bittersweet pangs about the East Marietta branch closing.
On Saturday, with time in my childhood time machine dwindling, I rummaged around the shelves of books, which were being labeled by category for their removal to the new $10.6 million Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center, which opens up next door in early December.
Earlier this week, Cobb commissioners finally voted to fund additional staff needed for the new place, in what had become a testy and frankly disappointing turn of events. In their budget battles, we’ve seen both East Cobb commissioners fighting over library funding, pitting one branch against another, ignoring citizens’ pleas to do right by what many here think are underfunded, but popular community treasures.
It reminded me of the ugly budget incident a few years ago, when then-commission chairman Tim Lee threatened to shut down East Marietta and all but a few of the Cobb libraries in a stunt to get his colleagues to the bargaining table during the recession. While that ploy worked, it created a lot of community bad will, and not just from library diehards like me.
A few years later, the same commissioners approved a creative way to finance a nearly $400 million dollar bond issue for the Atlanta Braves’ new stadium, then declared it wasn’t going to raise property taxes. Libraries, on the other hand, continue to be nickel-and-dimed, considered a “non-essential” service by the commissioner who wanted to close the East Cobb Library (and who even once held a town hall at the East Marietta branch meeting room).
There seems to be no political will to open libraries before, say, 11 a.m. on a Saturday (or 1 p.m., as was the case with the East Marietta Library). No Sunday hours at all, unless it’s the main branch in downtown Marietta, but only during the school year.
Tiny little East Marietta has been a real workhorse during these past 50 years, built with money from the very first Cobb library bond, and opened when the area was becoming rapidly suburbanized. As it closes, it was serving a community in transition that was taking advantage of the modernized information and resource needs of the public.
Like my old Wheeler High School, though, I appreciate what’s contained in the walls of old buildings, even if they’re eventually torn down.
East Marietta’s grand opening on March 7, 1967, coincided with the opening of the Kennesaw, Acworth, South Cobb, Sibley, Powder Springs and Lewis A. Ray branches. They were all built from the bond issue; it was the dawn of a new era in Cobb County, in which quality-of-life concerns were beginning to be met.
I know the Sewell Mill Library is going to be fabulous, and I can’t wait to take a look inside. But as the last 30 minutes began to trickle down to the last 15 on Saturday, and as the librarians continued their packing, I got a little choked up.
For a moment, I thought about checking out one last book with the East Marietta branch stamped in the bank, a volume that’s survived since the days of physical card checkout. At least for three weeks, I could have a relic in my possession, and savor what those memories continue to provide.
But I decided it was time to move on, to let these memories assume their rightful place. They’ll always be there, but better days are ahead for this library, and I’m confident the new place will continue to serve and elevate its citizens well.
