Dover’s Mayor, City Council and other officials are expected to discuss safety and security at the Dover Public Library later this month.
The discussion comes after a man allegedly committed a lewd act in the library last month that was seen by a teenager.
Dover Police say a 17-year-old female using a computer on the library’s 3rd floor saw a man seated in a chair rubbing his exposed genitals. She reported the activity to the front desk, but the suspect fled before officers arrived.
Dover City Council President William Hare says he’d like to see more done to make sure the library is safe for families, “The options could be having security there from the time they open until the time they close. And we’ve already started implementing - you need to show your ID and get a key to use the bathrooms.”
Jeanine Kleimo is the chair of the Dover Interfaith Mission for Housing - an organization that helps homeless people.
She worries about the bathroom policy’s impact on homeless people - many of whom don’t have ID and need to use the library bathroom, "We do have a daytime resource center but we have no operating funds or staff for it. So we do what we can to make restrooms, showers and laundry facilities available, but we can only do it on weekday mornings. And people need restrooms all the time of course.”
Councilman Hare says, “The library is not a homeless place to go shower and shave and everything. So, if they don’t have an ID, they need to go get an ID so we know who is using the facilities and if something happens, we know who has been in there.”
Council President Hare expects the issue to be discussed at the Council’s July 23, 2019 meeting at 6 p.m.
