Dear Library User: As many of you heard or read last week, because of the Town-wide vote rejecting the Representative Town Meeting approved budget, the Selectboard has directed the Interim Town Manager and staff to provide impacts of various budget reduction scenarios affecting each Town department. The Library Board of Trustees will consider the impacts of these historic budget reductions at a meeting on Tuesday, April 29, 5:30 PM, in the Library’s meeting room on the 2nd floor. The meeting is open to the public.The Selectboard will meet at 6:30 PM in the Municipal Center’s Selectboard meeting room to consider the impacts. If you are interested in the outcome for the future of library services to the Brattleboro community, you should plan to attend these meetings.
For a background of the scale of these proposed reductions please see the BCTV recording of April 22 meeting, or read accounts in the Brattleboro Reformer or The Commons.
One scenario for the library reduces staff by by one or two full time people, which could result in as many as 75 fewer hours of worked per week, or 33.3% of the total full time professional / support personnel. The other scenario requests a 5% across the board decrease in funding, which would affect personnel reductions as well, but also would include cuts to library acquisitions expenditures.
In 2011 the library was asked to reduce its budget in personnel and 24 hours of part-time hours were eliminated. This budget reduced operating hours from 56 to 50. There were many emails and letters of protest over this reduction
In 2014-2015 a two-person reduction or 5% across the board decrease may have the following effects:
- Library hours may be reduced from 50 to 40, thereby decreasing access to valuable print and non-print resources including the library’s 20 public access computers, which are now connected with fiber-optic speeds. Library users logged over 35,000 sessions last year and having fewer hours open will affect those citizens who need access to the Internet in their daily lives for various information needs such as applying for jobs, online courses, e-government services, etc.
- The virtual elimination or large reduction in children’s literacy programming–including the Summer Reading Program–one of our core services. In 2013 the children’s room hosted 359 programs, which included daily craft tables, weekly rhyme time, and other special events that attracted over 7,000 children and adults during the year.
- Library acquisitions for print, non-print, and database resources, which have had 0% increases in Town budget line items since 2004, would decrease by 15% in FY 2015 if cuts are voted. In 2014 library patrons checked out 170,000 items and accessed our electronic databases over 28,000 searches.
- The major impacts of these proposals will also seriously affect the library’s ability to carry forth its mission and strategic plans. Read the summary Brooks Memorial Library Strategic Plan 2012-2016. For a 3-page overview summary of the library you may also read the Library Department Report to the Selectboard (September 2103), which includes information on staffing, budget, services, and rankings with other Vermont public libraries.
The Library Board of Trustees will consider the impacts of these historic budget reductions at a meeting on Tuesday, April 29, 5:30 PM, in the Library’s meeting room on the 2nd floor. The meeting is open to the public.The Selectboard will meet at 6:30 PM in the Municipal Center’s Selectboard meeting room to consider the impacts.
If you are interested in the outcome for the future of library services to the Brattleboro community, you should plan to attend these meetings.
Sincerely,
Jerry Carbone
Library Director
It's my football!
This is the equivalent of “If you won’t do things my way, I’ll take my football and go home”.
The Library and Parks seem to be the easiest way to punish the populace for daring to vote the budget down. It’s a lot easier than actually fixing the problems.
Actually, when cooler heads prevail, it’s likely they will find better ways to cut the budget.
More background
Also good background:
Brattleboro Selectboard Special Budget Rejection Meeting – Deciphering The Vote, and No New Bond
https://www.ibrattleboro.com/sections/town-news/brattleboro-selectboard-special-budget-rejection-meeting-deciphering-vote-and-no-
Selectboard Meeting Notes: Dark Clouds on Budget Horizon
https://www.ibrattleboro.com/sections/town-news/selectboard-meeting-notes-dark-clouds-budget-horizon
Do Not Gut The Public Library!
https://www.ibrattleboro.com/sections/oped/do-not-gut-public-library
Taking A Deep Breath
https://www.ibrattleboro.com/sections/oped/taking-deep-breath
Brattleboro Town Budget Line-Items That May Be Cut?
https://www.ibrattleboro.com/sections/oped/brattleboro-town-budget-line-items-may-be-cut
Look Beyond the Library and Parks, Please
https://www.ibrattleboro.com/sections/oped/look-beyond-library-and-parks-please
There is no public clamoring to cut the library's budget
Is David Schoales the most sane member of the board?
From https://www.ibrattleboro.com/sections/town-news/brattleboro-selectboard-special-budget-rejection-meeting-deciphering-vote-and-no-
“David Schoales disagreed, saying that the vote was about the Police and Fire project. “I can’t draw other conclusions from the vote.”
He said he wouldn’t support any staff or service cuts. “Right now I see no outcry to stop plowing sidewalks or reduce employees.” He moved that the discussion be limited to the Police and Fire project and to take the talk of cuts off the table. “WE don’t need to put anyone through that anxiety.”
If they cut the library budget, I would be prepared to reject that budget as well, given the chance. The radical expansion of the police and fire buildings are unaffordable debt loads that threaten many essential parts of the budget.The proof of this is reckless cuts are already being proposed.
When will we ever be able to give the pay raises needed to retain police officers, if we don’t take the opportunity presented by the budget vote rejection, to stop the black hole before it eats more essential services ?
The time to get sane is now. Cutting the library is EXACTLY what some of us budget rejectors want to avoid, and feared would happen in the future if this out of control debt load was not stopped.
Cutting the library’s budget is not necessary, its a choice, and a bad one.
I don't think you will ever
I don’t think you will ever see a wide spread clamoring to cut the library budget. I think most of the voters in town recognize the vital and enormous role the library and it’s staff play in this town and to enforce any more funding cuts on a department that has already been forced to reduce it’s hours would, I believe, be met with many vocal and angry voters. Whenever there is a budget crisis – not just in Brattleboro but in many cities and towns across the nation – invariably the libraries are the first to come under attack.
I think it was a cruel and vindictive move on the Selectboard’s part (minus David Schoales-who seems to be thinking clearly) to announce that with the budget rejected 2 full time positions would probably need to be cut at the library along with cuts to Parks and Rec. It got everyone riled up and certainly didn’t help the Selectboard in terms of the voters having any faith in them to do the right things. The entire town budget needs to be looked; exactly where is the money being spent and are there better ways to provide services for less money. I wonder how often town service related contracts are put out to bid for other vendors to bid on? Maybe there are people out there who can do a good job for less money. Are we even looking at that possibility?
I hope that the budget meeting tomorrow night has a full house of voters asking questing, demanding answers and making their singular and collective voices heard in a way that the Selectboard has no choice but to finally listen.
Message to the Selectboard
[following is a copy of a message that I sent supporting the library]
Dear Patrick and David,
I would like the Selectboard to consider this comment as though I had been present at the meeting. Because of a prior commitment, I will not be able to attend. Please put this comment on record, and please be sure that all members of the Selectboard have seen it in a timely manner.
I am horrified that the Brattleboro Selectboard would even consider further cuts to the Brooks Memorial Library, which is already operating on a short budget. The Brooks Memorial Library is a valuable resource to our entire community. People from every walk of life rely on the library. Just last night, I attended a group which reads and discusses great literature. The staff at the library do an amazing job to create an accepting atmosphere.
The library is an island of sanity in a stressful world. Having been homeless myself many years ago, and experienced living with precariousness and the difficulty of trying to get on track in the face of scorn; It particularly gratifies me that part of my taxes support a public facility where everyone is respected, and where people have an opportunity to use computers. I do not want you to divert a penny of my taxes away from the library. The Brooks Memorial Library is a profoundly humanizing part of our community, which benefits all of us. Any cut will be counter-productive, with the cost to our town far outweighing any saving.
I believe that the leadership of Brattleboro made a terrible mistake in 2012 by not offering the voters an opportunity to vote on the largest bond issue in our history. It was an ethical mistake, and became a practical problem when in 2014 the voters voted down the budget. Even though it was technically a budget vote, it was the only way open to voters to express their outrage at having been denied the right to vote on the bond. I think it would compound the ethical mistake if you now make the library and the town’s people pay for an error caused by unwise leadership.
I urge you to find a way out of the current budget problem which does not impact on the library. Perhaps you should just present a revised budget which is exactly the same as the one originally presented, only with the additional bond payments eliminated.
Thank you and Regards,
Steven K-Brooks