For four hours on Friday, a green neon sign in the window of the Rosalie Wahl Library read OPEN, but at 2 p.m. sharp it blinked off for the last time.
It was more than the end of the business day -- it ended the last chapter of the charming library in downtown Lake Elmo. It also ended the east metro community's 50-year association with the Washington County Library system.
Starting Tuesday, Lake Elmo will begin operating its own library in temporary quarters at the Lake Elmo Regional Arts Center. Its goal is to establish a permanent home in a yet-to-be-chosen location within the next few months.
The county, meanwhile, will pack its 9,000 books, computers and furniture and distribute them to other branches. The building at 3479 Lake Elmo Av. N is for sale.
"It's really a shame," said Cathie Sullivan, of Lake Elmo, who on Friday afternoon stopped by to peruse the collection one last time. "It's too bad."
Deborah Peterson said she'll miss walking and biking to the library with her 3-year-old granddaughter, Giselle. Gloria Knoblauch will miss sitting on the library's deck. Bill Sullivan will miss the comfortable chairs he sat in while reading magazines.
But most, like Rhonda Place, also of Lake Elmo, said they will miss the convenience and friendliness of the tiny library where librarians knew many patrons by name. "It's small, but it meets my needs," Place said while returning a book Friday. "It will be sadly missed."
City leaders, unhappy with the service the county was providing at the Wahl Library, voted earlier this year to secede from the county system. They decided to use the $260,000 in allocated taxes to run their own library.
