To the Editor:
There is something special about having a brand-new library to call our own in Manahawkin, especially one built to serve the community for years to come. My 5-year-old daughter, Maeve, and I had our first chance to experience it during the final hour of opening day on Oct. 5, and as soon as we walked through the doors, the first thing that struck us was just how big the place was.
There was excitement throughout the building, with families exploring the new space and staff members helping visitors get acquainted. With less than an hour before closing, we tried to see as much as we could.
One of our first stops was getting Maeve her very first library card. She chose the design herself and, fittingly for a kid growing up near Long Beach Island, picked the one with the beach on it before we made our way toward the children’s section.
The difference from the old library was noticeable right away. The children’s area was much larger, and she immediately wanted to check out the sensory room, where we explored the light wall and played with the interactive floor projected from the ceiling. Neither of us had experienced anything like it in a library before, and she had a great time exploring the room.
From there, we started filling our reusable bag with children’s books while also finding time for a coloring page and a computer so she could practice her letters. Apparently, we were a little too ambitious with our book selections because one of the bag’s straps eventually gave out. Thankfully, the staff could not have been friendlier and quickly hooked me up with a canvas bag.
We eventually headed upstairs to the makerspace, where she cut out a design and turned it into her own pinback button. Before leaving, we also checked out the video game section, where I used the library’s app to place holds on Star Wars: Zero Company and 007: First Light, two games I am excited to play.
In less than an hour, we had found much more than shelves of books. The library gave Maeve opportunities to create, learn, play and explore, while somehow finding something for her video game-loving dad, too.
With closing time approaching, Maeve gathered her books and checked them out using her brand-new library card. Watching her use that beach-themed card for the first time was a small moment, but it got me thinking about the much larger investment that went into creating the building around us.
Living in New Jersey, complaining about taxes can sometimes feel like one of our unofficial state pastimes, and there are legitimate conversations to be had about how much we pay and where that money goes. We should expect our tax dollars to be spent responsibly and question those investments when they are not.
Building the new library was certainly not a small investment. The construction contract came in at about $9.5 million, with nearly half covered through a state grant and the rest shared by Ocean County and the township. What that investment has given us is a much larger library built for a community that has more than doubled in population since the old library was repurposed in the late 1980s. Those numbers help explain why a new one was needed, but walking through it showed me why it was worth the investment.
During just one visit, my daughter practiced her letters, explored a sensory space, created something and left carrying a stack of books she picked out herself. Around us were families doing the same in their own way, enjoying a public space built around the needs of the community.
Maeve is in kindergarten now, and if we’re lucky, that beach library card she picked out on opening day will get plenty of use in the years ahead. The books she checks out will change, the children’s section will eventually give way to other parts of the library, and maybe someday she will be upstairs working on a school project in the same building where she once spent an afternoon making a button with her dad.
We spend a lot of time talking about what government costs us, especially here in New Jersey, and rightfully so. At the same time, I think it’s just as important to recognize when we can actually see our tax dollars being put to good use. Walking out of the new library with my daughter and our replacement bag full of books, I felt like we had just experienced a pretty good example of that. This is a place families can enjoy today, kids like Maeve can grow up using, and our community can benefit from for decades to come. To me, that is money well spent.
Daniel J. Dreher Jr.Stafford TownshipOctober 21, 2026
