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Article Courtesy of News 4
Jax
By
Tiffany Salameh
Published May ??, 2024
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WATCH VIDEO |
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MIDDLEBURG – A Middleburg man had the novel idea to provide free books to his
neighbors, but the idea opened up a new chapter in his life: a legal battle with
his homeowners association.
Now he’s facing
LAWSUITS and almost $2,500 in fines.
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The little library was situated on his
front lawn along the sidewalk where his Doctor’s Inlet
Reserve neighbors could take a book and leave a book.
But now all of that is gone.
More than 400 million books have been shared through the
registered Little Free Library program, just like the one
that is now sitting in pieces in Jeff Marshall’s driveway.
“I just made it out of an old refrigerator,” Marshall said.
About a year ago, Marshall was inspired by another Little
Free Library in his neighborhood to build his own. He
submitted his plans for approval from his homeowners
association (HOA) and said he never got a proper denial.
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“I
waited 30 days and I put it up anyway. And it was up for, you know, at least a
year. There’s dog treats on there. So I get dog walkers all the time,” Marshall
said. “There’s an old couple that walks by with their little dog, they sit on
the bench, they, you know, take a rest, give their dog a treat and continue.
Mothers with strollers, your families, teenagers. My kids especially. I have a 7
and 8-year-old and they will come out every single day to try and see if there’s
anything new.”
Months went by and Marshall thought everything was in order until he was served
with a lawsuit. He fought to dismiss the lawsuit in court, but his motion was
denied so he complied with the HOA’s requests to take the library down.
Then he got a bill for close to $2,500 in lawyers’ fees the HOA spent to sue
him.
He’s not sure what could happen if he doesn’t pay.
“It’s an HOA so I don’t know if they can put a lien on my house or not,” he
said.
Marshall had to remove it and since then, his neighbors have expressed their
disappointment.
“We have several friends in the neighborhood. Whenever we walk to their houses,
we always stop by and check it out. My daughter has gotten like four or five
books from it,” neighbor Christy Bird said.
After learning about the lawsuit, Bird has some questions about how her HOA dues
are being spent.
“They need to better spend our funds. We pay for the HOA,” she said.
News4JAX reached out to the homeowners association at Doctor’s Inlet Reserve but
because of the ongoing lawsuit, it declined to comment.
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