Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


An upcoming community forum is centered on defending the “right to read” and freedom to access information following actions taken at the Hartland Cromaine District Library.

It’s titled “Emergency Community Forum – Book Banners Run Hartland Library” and hosted by SAGE or Stand Against Extremism Livingston County to “Fight For The First Amendment”. The First Amendment safeguards freedom of speech, religion, and the press, among others.

The forum is scheduled on Thursday, September 4th from 6-8pm at Hartland’s Historic Music Hall to “discuss the situation and ideas on how we can work together moving forward”.

In more recent weeks, the group has been organizing demonstrations outside of FloodGate Church during weekend services to “draw attention to harmful policy changes that FloodGate pastor and Cromaine Library Board President Bill Bolin had been drafting with lawyers from Project 2025’s advisory board - Alliance Defending Freedom”.

The church is located in Hartland Township but has a Howell mailing address of 1535 North Old US-23.

SAGE asserts “Currently, books are being labeled at Cromaine library with pink stickers as “LGBTQ books”. More will start being sequestered soon. There's over 220+ books still being challenged with the request of having them removed from the library by one of Bill Bolin's church members who is also active with the local GOP. We plan to keep the pressure on while the situation continues to unfold”.

A release from SAGE states “This is part of ongoing national protests against the Trump administration. The focus of ‘Rage Against the Regime’ protests is to expose local examples of the administration's agenda. Bolin is working with Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) lawyers in drafting new discriminatory library policies. ADF is on the Project 2025 advisory board. Their agenda threatens to dismantle the First Amendment, reshape the public sphere, and undermine the fundamental principles that support libraries. Since Bolin’s slate overthrew Cromaine library last election, hundreds of books are now in the process of potentially being purged. By targeting libraries, they aim to limit access to information, suppress diverse perspectives, and erode the foundations of a democratic society.”

Some of the recent signage content at the protests, including a large inflatable penis, have sparked community concern.

SAGE responded to WHMI to say “the person with the prop in question is not a SAGE member, as these protests are open to the public”. Messages seeking comment were placed with the church.

As for the controversial policy, the updated “Materials Selection and Reader Guidance Policy” went from four to ten pages. The bottom link to it is provided. It was adopted by the Library Board in June, with Secretary Nancy Rosso opposed.

Minutes state: “Secretary Rosso said this policy is fraught with many violations of 1st Amendment Rights. We have been advised by ACLU, our attorney, and staff from the Library of Michigan on labeling and this policy is an effort to disregard that legal advice. Effectively, what this policy will do is “Ban Books.” This is highly risky, and a risk the library does not need to take”.

The policy reads:

C. The Library Director is responsible for overseeing where the books are shelved and catalogued, subject to the Library Board’s review of challenges to materials brought under Section IX of this policy. Materials that are appropriate for adults or older teens but may be considered harmful to minors, as defined by the Library Privacy Act, shall be shelved within the adult collection. See Appendix A.

D. Further, Library materials will not be marked or identified to show approval or disapproval of contents. Library materials may be labeled to notify patrons that materials may contain graphic violence or sexually explicit material as defined in Appendix B.

The process for challenging materials held in the collection is at the end of the policy in section G.

Library Director Sarah Neidert clarified for WHMI that she has completed reviews of quite a few materials at the request of community members, and there have been appeals of her decisions in some cases. She said one thing to note that many may miss is that at the end of the challenge process as outlined in section G, the board agreed to remove the word "removal" - meaning they cannot "ban" books.
Neidert said "Only library staff may decide when to remove a book. The board may override professional decisions on the location or labeling of materials, but cannot force the removal of material”.

Meanwhile, seating is limited for the upcoming community forum and those looking to attend should register by emailing sagelivco@gmail.com to reserve a spot.

**It was specifically stated the Music Hall and Library are not sponsoring or endorsing the event.