Council Opts to Not Restore Library Funds

Despite a handful of impassioned pleas from residents who came out in support of the library, and an attempted budget amendment by Town Councilors Jackie Flood and Tom Koenig, the council voted against adding $14,846 back into the library's budget Thursday night.

Moments later, the council voted to approve a $30.1 million budget that keeps the tax rate within 2 cents of last year's bill.

Town Councilor Dan Dwyer told residents gathered in the Town Hall Meeting Room for the public hearing on the 2012-13 budget that his problem is not the amount of money the Merrimack Public Library proposed in the budget this year, but the way the money is being spent.

“A lot of you think we're closing the library doors and it just isn't true,” he said, addressing those in attendance and watching the meeting on TV.

Dwyer said of the approximately $1 million budget the library proposed, $900,000 of it is spent on salary and benefits for the library's 28 salaried and hourly employees.

He said the council is upset because they want to see change and they don't feel the library is receptive to that.

“This is their decision not our decision,” Dwyer said. “We can give suggestions on how to keep the library open but they don't want to listen.”

He said the remaining money is split in a couple ways: $119,000 is split across the year for things like water, sewer, electric, telephone, education training, etc. The remaining $77,000 is spent on materials.

Only $77,000 is spent on materials, "that's the true crime," Dwyer said.

Addressing concerns brought forward by the town council when the board met with the library in January, Library Director Janet Angus said the administration and Library Trustees have been feverishly working on updating their mission statement and vision for the library.

The problem is, Councilor Dave Yakuboff said, is that they are “a day late and a dollar short.”

Yakuboff spent several minutes grilling Angus about the intricacies of staffing, which included questions about employees who retire, but then come back as part-time employees making the same wage they were previously making, minus the benefits.

Yakuboff was hesitant to ask how many people are currently on the payroll in this situation, but was surprised when Angus said one person who retired last year came back part time, and one person retiring this year will be back part-time after her retirement. Further, the current part-timer in that situation is stepping down completely this year, Angus said.

"I'd love to give you a million bucks, and I'll tell you what, if the opportunity comes to fruition at some point and you come up with this great vision or the trustees come up with this great vision and someone kicks that football right through the uprights, guess what, I'd be the first son of a gun to give you that million dollars,” Yakuboff said.

Earlier in the evening, the board heard from residents requesting $14,846 be returned to the library's budget to keep it open on Sundays and Monday evenings.

Among those to speak was 12-year-old Alyssa Jobin, a student at Merrimack's Academy for Science and Design.

Jobin spoke to the many ways people use the library. Among her favorites is the family book group that she and her brother both enjoy. It's on Monday evenings and she said she was concerned it might be hard to reschedule

Jobin said the library's activities are important to the people who attend them as is the need for a library for the people who use it. There will always be a need for paper back and hard cover books, especially for reference, she said, but she likes that the library also offers new technology, like Kindle downloads.

“Please consider returning the money the trustees have asked you to return,” Jobin said.

Resident Deborah Phelps also urged the council to reconsider its budget cuts to the library.

Phelps said the library is so much more than just another library. It's a place to get information, a place to work outside of the home, a place to gather when an ice storm rips through the state leaving thousands without power.

“I don't believe all of the avenues to earn money in this town have been exhausted,” Phelps said. “... There are other ways to earn money other than to just take it from the library.”

She said that when people want to come to Merrimack, they want to live or work somewhere with attractive amenities in town.

“This is more than just a library if we want to grow this town, who would want to come to a library that's closed.” Phelps asked.

She went so far as to advocate for all $75,000 removed from the budget by the Town Manager and councilors during the budget process.

“I respectfully request that you don't take money away from the library, it would be a detriment,” she said.

Jackie Flood, who motioned for the amendment on Tom Mahon's motion to the pass the budget as recommended, said she hoped the library could stay open for the six hours projected in the library's loss and even return another two hours that were cut this year.

Flood said she believed the library had held up its end of the bargain, when the town council told them in January that staffing cuts should be mad, and as such the town should return that Money to the library.

Tom Koenig said he was able to get behind the $25,000 cut by the town manager, but not the additional $50,000 cut by the town council on Jan. 23.

“I do believe however that the $50,000 was a little harsh against the library, Koenig said. “I'm pleased to see they've gone back and sharpened their pencil and came up with another number.”

Koenig said he wished the library had come up with the $25,000 themselves first, but he'd take it either way.

Koenig said he thought the town should meet the library halfway in terms of the cuts.

However, there were too many town councilors who didn't agree Koenig and Flood's point of view and the amendment to add the $14,846 back into the budget failed 5-2.

During the public hearing, the council also passed it's operating budget for the 2012-13 year in a 6-1 vote with Koenig dissenting. The operating budget of 29.8 million was supplemented by about a million owed in debt services.

It also passed the NEPBA Local Police Union's contracts.

The town will next get its say on these items at the 2012 deliberative session scheduled for March 14.