New Room Rental Fees Spark Debate Over Pricing Out Community Groups

The Library Board spent much of Monday's meeting hashing out a formal rental policy for its three meeting rooms, proposing a $25 non-refundable reservation fee for all users, a $100 setup fee for theater-style seating in the large room, and hourly rates of $50 for the medium room, $125 for the large room, and $30 for the small room, with fees waived for government bodies and Larkspur-serving nonprofits. Insurance would be required only for rentals of the large room, Room 2.

Staff asked the board to sign off on the framework while cleaning up a few loose ends: clarifying that the insurance requirement applies solely to Room 2, fixing page numbering in the rental application packet, and striking ambiguous language about alcohol being "sold" at events.

The policy's real-world bite came up when the library director noted that a writers' group had inquired about renting the large room for recurring monthly meetings — a booking that would have run about $750 — and never followed up once they saw the fee schedule. Board members worried the fee structure could quietly shut out exactly the kind of grassroots groups the library wants to serve, with one member arguing the board doesn't want someone "trying to help others or get a good group together" turned away over cost. Another raised the idea of a sliding scale, charging more for a first hour and less for each additional hour, to make longer community bookings more affordable without leaving rooms empty.

Board members also flagged an equity question the policy doesn't yet answer: if a renter cancels, the $25 fee is forfeited, but several members felt it would be unfair to keep the money if the city is the one that cancels. No vote was taken; staff will revisit the fee structure in December once they can see which groups are being deterred by the current rates.

Four New Pages Hired as Library Eyes Six-Day Week

The library director told the board that four new part-time pages have been hired to tackle shelving and a persistent book-drop backlog, and that recruitment has now opened for two full-time Library Assistant positions to handle circulation and desk duties.

If hiring goes smoothly through September, staff hope the added positions will let the library expand to six-day-a-week service by late fall or early winter — likely by opening Mondays, and possibly Monday evenings from roughly 2 to 7 p.m., though the schedule isn't finalized.

The staffing push comes as the library grapples with its own popularity: summer programming has been drawing 75 to 100 people some days, chronic parking-lot overcapacity has worsened since Corte Madera's library closed for construction, and the outdoor book locker is in high demand. The director also noted many older patrons from the old library building haven't been coming to the new facility, saying she thinks "they don't like the new modernness" of the space — a board member asked staff to check whether those patrons are still getting the library newsletter so they don't feel cut off.