They have done it before, and supporters of the Cherrydale branch library say they will again fend off efforts to close the branch.
The advocacy group Citizens for Cherrydale Library is once again mobilizing to save the facility, this time from County Manager Mark Schwartz’s proposal to shutter the branch in order to save about $450,000 in the coming fiscal year.
Boosters have already gained support from seven nearby civic associations and over 600 signers of an online petition — along with another 150 signatures on a separate petition from a Taylor Elementary School fifth grader.
“The County Board tried to close Cherrydale Library in 1977, 1992 and 1998,” Citizens for Cherrydale Library notes on its website. “In 2009, they tried to cut the library’s operation from six days per week to three. In each case, our library was saved by a wave of citizen assertiveness.”
Representatives from neighborhood associations in Arlingwood, Bellevue Forest, Cherrydale, Donaldson Run, Maywood, Old Glebe and Rivercrest raised a variety of arguments in a letter to County Board Chair Matt de Ferranti over the weekend. Although Cherrydale Library is only about a mile north of Central Library, advocates say the libraries “serve a different need and are not interchangeable.”
They note that the branch is Arlington’s only public library north of Langston Blvd, and argue that its small size makes it preferable to many families with younger children, even as it offers free entertainment for both youth and adults, along with exhibit space for local artists and photographers.
“The older our library gets, the dearer it becomes to those who use it,” the civic associations wrote. “Young mothers, taking their children for the first time to Cherrydale Library, have related to us their fond memories of their own mother taking them for the first time to Cherrydale Library. These kinds of community memories have no cash value but are priceless to those who hold them.”
They also argue that public libraries increase the property values of homes in the surrounding neighborhood, and that shuttering a branch could ultimately cost the county more in tax revenue than it generates in savings.
An online petition has drawn both signatures and feedback from those who think the proposal is wrongheaded.
“I tire of the continual attempts to eliminate services that make Arlington special,” wrote George Troutman. “Arlington libraries are among the jewels of the county. The smaller ones are particularly important as unique nooks for children of all ages. Keep them open.”
Meanwhile, local fifth grader Rehan Smith has started a petition of his own — noting that the library is walkable for people in the neighborhood and offers books that students can’t get at school.
“After learning that proposed Arlington County budget cuts could lead to the closure of the Cherrydale Library, he decided to take action,” Rehan’s mother, Samira Madhany, told ARLnow. “Rehan has been visiting the library since he was an infant, and it has always been one of his favorite places in the neighborhood.”
“It would be a major mistake to close this library,” said Robert Knetl. “The county should solve real problems, not create them.”
At a March 5 budget work session between County Board members and staff, library director Diane Kresh defended the proposal by saying the cost savings could be repositioned elsewhere, both in terms of facilities and programming.
“It’s an opportunity for us to move away from being very dependent on brick-and-mortar buildings in very specific locations,” she said, pointing to a need to “reach people where they are” through community-based services.
However, Kresh also said the county’s eight public libraries shouldn’t be judged by total usage, but by their impact.
“It’s a number, and it doesn’t speak to the value to an individual,” she said of usage totals. Low usage, Kresh said, “doesn’t mean it doesn’t have value and it’s not important.”
That shift in focus is evident in one of the few new positions proposed for library funding in fiscal 2027. A new “outreach librarian” would come at a cost estimated at $161,000 in annual pay and benefits — eating up more than a third of the savings from closing Cherrydale Library.
At the budget work session, Kresh suggested the current location of branch libraries has not kept pace with an urbanizing community.
“If we were to design the buildings today, [they] would not be in those specific locations,” Kresh said. “We might put something in Rosslyn, we might put something in Crystal City, Pentagon City or the west end of Columbia Pike.”
But supporters of the Cherrydale branch said the savings accumulating through its closure would be “absurdly insignificant.”
“Our library is cost-effective,” Citizens for Cherrydale Library said. “Cherrydale Library in the past 12 months has consumed less than 3% of the entire Libraries Department’s budget while handling 4.6% of the library system’s circulation.”
As they have with Schwartz’s controversial proposal to eliminate competitive and recreational gymnastics programs, County Board members largely have been mum about their views on the proposed library closure.
“There’s more to talk about,” Board member Julius “JD” Spain, Sr., said at the budget work session.
The first Cherrydale library was founded by the League of Women Voters in 1922, predating the establishment of the county library system in the late 1930s. The current library building, located on N. Military Road, opened in 1961.
