NEWS: Williamsburg and James City County Proceed with Separate Library Projects
York County ‘exploring options’ while James City goes it alone and Williamsburg seeks feedback
Though final details about approved budgets across the region are yet to be released, at least one likely outcome of recent votes is the construction of several new libraries, funded and built separately by Williamsburg and James City County. Meanwhile, York County states that it is considering other options besides contributing to the new library in Williamsburg. Currently, the three jurisdictions cooperate to fund and run a joint library system. Anticipated funding from each location towards operating costs in Fiscal Year 2026 is $1.1M from Williamsburg, $6.3M from James City County and $890K from York County.
The estimated cost of the new downtown library in Williamsburg has fluctuated since the idea was first proposed in 2019, but the current plans outline a potential cost between $30M-$40M depending on the final design. The City had planned to contribute $20M towards the project and anticipated the remaining funds would come from James City County and York County, as well as grants and private donations.
At least some of that funding now seems unlikely after a recent decision by James City County to build a separate new $49M library on the same site as a new $238M county administration and services complex. The County claims that their own 25,000 square foot library is necessary to meet prescribed State standards related to library square footage per County resident.
Williamsburg City Council discussed the issues around funding a new library at a meeting last month. At the time, Mayor Doug Pons stated, “I guess the elephant in the room is how much library are we going to build since James City County has reneged, indicated they are not going to contribute to the downtown library … So that changes…the amount of funds that we will have available,” which Digby Solomon reported in Williamsburg Watch. As Solomon explained, the current library operating agreement does not require that each jurisdiction contribute funding to build a library outside of their jurisdiction. Additional reporting by Sian Wilkerson in the The Daily Press back in 2022 stated that James City County Administrator Scott Stevens had already cast doubt on the County’s commitment to funding a new Williamsburg library. More recently, Solomon quoted Stevens as saying that “James City County did not commit funding towards replacing the city’s downtown branch.”
Williamsburg City Manager Andrew Trivette also spoke to the potential funding shortfall during another City Council meeting in April. “If the city is the only entity putting money in based on the budget that you're considering, we don't have enough for it,” he said. Despite the financial uncertainty, the City Council decided to move the library project forward while earmarking almost $40M in funds, much of which would come from additional public debt. More than $29M in other capital projects were left “unfunded” from Trivette’s proposed budget, according to a summary provided on the City’s website.
A public input session about the library was held last night at the City’s fire station (440 N. Boundary St.) and another is scheduled for May 20 at 1:30PM in the same location. Feedback about the new Williamsburg library plans can also be submitted through an online survey.
York County had previously planned $2M in capital funding for the “renovation” of the current Williamsburg Library. The County’s new FY26-FY31 CIP no longer allocates funding towards a library in Williamsburg and now states that other options are being considered in order to provide library services to residents in the northern part of the County. The docunent states that one potential outcome is sticking with the current library operating agreement which could also include contributing to a new Williamsburg library. Other options include leasing space for a satellite library branch or building a permanent new library to rival those planned by Williamsburg and James City County.
Use of AI: A Google AI tool called NotebookLM was used to help research and compile data for this post.
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