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LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The city of Lincoln has evicted a Little Free Library from its location near a church in the Indian Village neighborhood, saying the library box can't sit in a public right of way.
The city gave the group and the church, New Visions Community-Southminster site, until Thursday to move the box onto private property or face fines that could hit $500.
George Finley, who lives across the street from the little library, told Lincoln television station KLKN the "take one, leave one" library is popular with children.
"I've seen little ones that come over here and get a book and they've actually just sat down in the grass and started reading," Finley said.
The little library is part of a worldwide movement to promote reading through the free exchange of books. The nonprofit group Little Free Library has said there are about 15,000 registered little libraries in 62 countries.
Barbara Arendt, head of the Indian Village Neighborhood Association, coordinated the library project. She said she visited most of the 25 Little Free Libraries she knows of in town and found several had been built between a sidewalk and street. She said the library was placed in the right of way to keep it away from the church's sprinkler system and in plain sight for neighbors.
"It's public right of way, it's a public library. To me it sounds like it goes together. But the city disagrees," Arendt said.
Public Works Director Miki Esposito said the box's location between the sidewalk and Otoe Street violates a rule requiring property owners to keep the public right of way cleared.
"(The city) uses that area for snow storage in the winter, light poles, mailboxes, things like that," Esposito told the Lincoln Journal Star.
Esposito said she and Arendt are working out a way to delay any city fine for a week or two, given that the box won't be moved by the deadline.
"They're a really cool idea, and we don't want to discourage it, but we just want it off the right of way," Esposito said of the little library.
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