The Friends of Brooks Memorial Library are seeking donations of “like new” and good condition hardback and paperback books for their Holiday Book Sale to be held on Friday, December 5 and Saturday, December 6.
If you have books that are in good condition and that you are willing to donate to the Library please contact Therese Marcy at 254-5290 x 106.
Proceeds from the Holiday Book Sale will go to support the purchase of books, materials and equipment for the Library and the Children’s Room.
Priorities
A good event for a good cause, needed more than ever.
The Selectboard will be looking at cutting library services (and parks and rec) to help keep taxes down in the coming year(s).
One interesting historical tidbit – we had a library in town before we had many other services. People were using the library before we had paid fireman, and even before sewers.
Hopefully fans and staff of the library will begin their campaign to preserve or enhance services soon. (I know many of them prefer to lurk… but hey…)
Same old same old
Once again the library is at the top of the list to suffer budget cuts. It’s like a broken record…short on money? Let’s decimate some of the things that make the town more livable. Library, parks…how about the select board give up something? Why do we have to keep fighting the same battle? It’s just wrong
what's essential?
The library and recreation are not viewed as essential services, and the town has cut much of the fat over the last decade from everything else, leaving only a handful of options for further cutting. Much of what remains is mandated by law (town clerks duties, for example, aren’t likely to see cuts).
We should probably be making community plans to fund those two, as it seems a matter of time before they are cut at so much in the municipal budget they are damaged beyond usefulness.
I’m still an advocate for a Department of Volunteerism. Work out a system of tax credits or free garbage bags for those who volunteer. Build up a robust program with well-trained people. After a few road repairs, the number of qualified road repairers is increased, for example.
Volunteers could help with quite a few things, to keep services rolling while taxes don’t pay for them.
The real big issues are the buildings, trucks, pools, rinks, and other capital items. In the “olden” days, town businesses sponsored much of this as a matter of community pride. A business would install its own sidewalk, or sponsor its own volunteer fire group. The town wasn’t as important when regular folks stepped up to improve things on their own.
I agree that there are budget
I agree that there are budget items that have to take priority; maintaining the roads, snow removal, police and fire presence. But quality of life issues are just as important and are often the reason people choose to live in a particular area. When I was contemplating moving here from Boston 7 years ago the first thing I looked into – before I even began to look for a place to live – was whether the town had a well used,quality library. A town library says a lot about how people feel about their town. Although the library escaped the most devastating cuts the last time around it’s budget was still cut significantly.
Why can’t some town offices close one day a week or open later? It’s going to be difficult to take an entity that is already so dependent on many ,many volunteers and ask it to find even more volunteers. Would something like a monthly pledge work sufficiently? Are there other creative options that we – as a town can do to financially help the library directly without the money being absorbed by the town for general operating expenses. There are only so many times the Selectboard can threaten the library resources before people become complacent or begin to feel it’s a losing battle. I continue to be reluctant to believe that the still over the top police/ fire budget is as low as it could be. The cost proposed at the last meeting is barely different from the original proposal. Which the residents voted down. No reason to believe that the same thing wouldn’t happen this time around.
Our library is excellent
I agree. Looking at things the way we’ve always looked at them in the past isn’t working. New ideas and approaches should be tried.
Yeah, I sense the plan to return with a similar price tags on the Police and Fire project will go down a similar path as before. I thought they almost had it by breaking the project in two (or three), and feeding a series of smaller-priced items to taxpayers would be a successful path. Nope. It must be everything at once.
(As for the Dept of Volunteers – that’s for the town, not the library. First order of business would be training a core group of volunteers to train new recruits, so staff wouldn’t have to.)
And again, we put a library into operation in town long before we took care of things like sewage and paid firemen. Perhaps the budget could be cut according to last in… whatever was added most recently would be cut the most. Those with the longest histories would be cut the least.
I’m also listening to the news of other states legalizing and taxing marijuana. The report said Massachusetts and Maine might be next in line. Vermont is about to lose out on a rare opportunity to be first, get substantial tax income, tourist income, and a head start on a new, soon-to-be-legal-everywhere industry. I find it astounding that we’re willing to throw away libraries, parks, police and fire facilities, and other town needs due to being uptight about something safer than booze and cigarettes.
But, I’m stupid. Someone who drinks a glass of wine every night should tell me how this would be wrong. : )
FDR
When FDR first ran, a major campaign slogan of his was legalize beer. (Of course, FDR iqnored prohibition himself..) Now many of the alkeys stand against marijuana. With more Repubs in Montpelier now it might be uphill for pot.
Back to the library, the Friends of Brooks Library Board could use people like you and Kris…