West Hartford
The Selectboard recently exercised its authority to appoint two new trustees to the five-member library board, and is likely to make a third appointment in the near future.
At a March 29 meeting, during an interview with candidates Judy Roberts and Harry G. Dorman III, who retired as the CEO of Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital in 2013, Selectboard members asked the candidates where they stood in the efforts to more closely align the interests of the library and the town.
“We’ve tried to create a collaborative with all of the other libraries,” Selectboard Chairman Dick Grassi said, according to a CATV video of the meeting. “Here there has been, apparently, some resistance to that. How do you feel about working with the rest of the libraries?”
“Yes, I would be open to … having associations with other libraries,” Roberts responded.
When it was Dorman’s turn, he expressed similar sentiments.
“I do understand that there have been some issues,” he said. “It’s important to understand what those issues are and how we can help.”
The two were both unanimously appointed to the board to serve until March 29, 2017.
John Newton, who is currently the treasurer of the library board, said that two openings on the board were on the ballot during Town Meeting in March, but that the incumbents had declined to seek re-election, and no one came forward to take their place.
The third spot was opened in April 2015, when a trustee resigned for personal reasons, Newton said.
The other holdover from the previous board is Tom Hazen. Efforts to reach Hazen, who Newton said is the acting chairman, were unsuccessful.
Grassi and Vice Chairwoman Rebecca White both said on Thursday that they were upbeat about the future of the library.
“I feel really positive,” said White. “They both were really open to making sure it remains a community center for West Hartford as a village, but also to work toward collaboration.”
“We’re excited about this,” said Grassi. “That is a valuable resource to the village and the town, and I see people are finally coming together to make it work for the community.”
The issues between the West Hartford Library and the town have included accusations that it has not been open to collaboration with other libraries.
In 2002, the acrimony flared up in a lawsuit, during which the Vermont Supreme Court upheld the right of the library trustees to control the operations of the library.
Earlier this year, the tensions between the town and the library came to a head when the Selectboard voted to reduce the library’s funding to $20,000, significantly below the town manager’s recommendation of about $35,000.
“I believe that better communication is needed between the Selectboard and the trustees,” said Newton. “There was some miscommunication and they weren’t aware of all the facts, and we weren’t aware of some of their facts.”
Before voting in favor of the cuts, then-Selectboard Chairman Chuck Wooster said he felt that it was necessary to cut the budget after years of poor relations had failed to resolve themselves, to the detriment of the library’s ability to serve its patrons.
White said that figures showing the library is less cost-effective than other libraries were compelling to her.
“The reason their budget was reduced as because they weren’t using the taxpayers’ money efficiently,” she said.
Those who opposed the cut argued that the Selectboard should establish clear criteria and benchmarks that would have allowed the library to avoid the drastic action.
At the time the decision was made to cut the budget, Selectwoman Sandy Mariotti volunteered to act as a liaison between the two bodies, in an effort to get past the long-simmering issues.
White said that the budget reduction triggered a community-wide response to the library.
“It’s not just a West Hartford concern anymore,” she said. “I think that was a positive of the budget being reduced by the town. It wasn’t just the people of West Hartford who were concerned.”
Newton said he is “thrilled” by the new members, and hopes that talks will lead to a reinstatement of the library’s budget to its former levels.
“I want to resolve any issues or problems so we can get back on track so we don’t have to go through this budget thing every year,” he said.
Newton said that the library planned to get through the upcoming year through a combination of reserve funds, volunteers and donations to avoid reducing its hours from the current levels of 32 hours per week.
Neither Grassi nor White said they were committed to restoring the budget, at least not any time soon. Grassi said he would want to get more input from Mariotti on the results of the talks before commenting on that idea. White said that she had no specific benchmarks in place for what would trigger a restoration of the budget, but that she imagined it would be a multi-year process.
All of the controversy has not seemed to dim the popularity of the library itself, which opened its doors in a new $900,000 building in 2014 after its previous structure was totaled by Tropical Storm Irene.
Sandie Cary, who was hired last year as the new librarian, released figures showing that, between July and March, the library has served 4,075 patrons, up a significant 66 percent from the 2,689 patrons it served during the same months of the 2008-09 season, the last year for which numbers were available.
Newton said he anticipates that the upward trend in usage will continue.
“I don’t know how many times I threatened to myself that I was going to quit,” he said. “But you have to hang in there and things do get better. In my mind, we’ve turned the corner.”
Matt Hongoltz-Hetling can be reached at mhonghet@vnews.com or 603-727-3211.