POLL: Readers Tell the Urbandale Library What To Do With Its Coffee Shop

The saga of, the struggling coffee shop, continues.

Dion Cobb, manager of Mustards restaurant, which has operated the coffee shop for the past couple of years, this week presented financial reports to the Urbandale Library Board showing the business wasn't making enough money to cover his $500 a month rent.

Cobb suggested a sliding rent scale based on shop revenue and possibly closing in the evenings, a time when library business picks up.

Mustards is the third business to fail to run a profitable coffee shop in the library and Urbandale's is not the only library to struggle with that issue. Urbandale librarians said the Johnston Library ended up replacing its coffee shop with vending machines.

Board members said they could decide to operate the coffee shop without making money on it, simply as a service to patrons, they could try to improve it, they could replace the shop with vending machines, or they could use the space for an entirely different function.

"I'd like to know what our patrons or our citizens would like to have us do," said board member Tom Graves.

What do you think? Take our Patch Poll below and give the board your best ideas in the comments section.