Greenburgh Library - Management Overdue!

Listed on the back of a (campaign) letter The Paul mailed out to residents on the Town’s dime, as well as on his blog, is another glaring indicator of his incompetence! He is asking the public to donate in-demand books to the ski chalet, aka the library, as well as audio books, DVDs and CDs. The Paul and his Stepford crew recently cut the $3.5 million library budget by some $570,000 in what some have said is another political, not financial move. Because there is now a budgetary shortage, the library has placed the purchasing of books on hold. Even in Greenburgh, ABG believes this to be preposterous!

Our library boasts many features. It has tall glass windows, computer classes, unheated easy chairs in the new great hall of space-waste, new restrooms, beau coup offices for the staff, a poorly organized area of DVDs downstairs and musical CDs upstairs, a typically unattended second floor librarian station, a children’s area, art exhibits, and an incredibly large community room that sits vacant more often than not. Alas, in the end, our library will boast everything except books – unless we donate them.

Quoting The Paul from his letter, “In order to keep the Library open six days per week the Library Trustees decided to ELIMINATE the materials budget. That means there are no new books, DVDs, audio books, or music CDs, being purchased for the Greenburgh Public Library. Please help the Library purchase the in demand books. If you make out a check for $25 to the Friends of the Greenburgh Library they can purchase a new popular book. If you advise the library of the book you would like them to purchase with your $25 donation – they will try to accommodate your request.” ABG is curious how long The Paul will let this charade continue before he “hits up” the Lanza Foundation for the necessary money?

The list supplied from The Paul via the Library totals a combination of 31 children and adult books. Given the budget problems The Paul faces, we thought we’d “lie” out the math we are using. It’s simple: 31 books x $25 = $775. Let’s be generous this year and triple the amount of books we donate to 93 (@$25). That figure would now be $2,275. If we apply the same amount to DVDs ($2,275) and CDs ($2,275), it totals, without shipping, $6,825. This figure doesn’t make a dent into the $570,000 that has been eliminated. So, how is the $570k cut actually forcing the Town to NOT buy books. It doesn’t make sense. Anyway, now that we only need $563,175, what to do? Well, there will be $200+k taken from the library’s reserve fund, so now we’re only down 200+k. Not quite the dismal picture we were (mis)led to believe by The Paul – one of his common tactics.

The library is required by state mandate to be open six days a week. If they showed any initiative or caring, they would be open seven days a week. But they obviously wanted another unscheduled day off. So the library lays dormant on Sundays. ABG learned Mondays is one of the library’s busiest days according to the Board and that’s why the library stayed open on Mondays. To see what “busy” might be, ABG had a staffer go to the library on Monday. On this particular Monday, the library was barren in some areas and had a smattering of people in others. ABG understands that activity cannot be predicted and it may have simply been a slow day anyway. It might be like when you take your car to the mechanic because it’s making a noise and then doesn’t make the noise for him. Then, as soon as you leave, the noise is back. Regardless, ABG maintains the library should be open on the weekends, when children and most other taxpayers are more able to use it than the weekdays. This closing seems more a matter of convenience to the staff than their clients. Apparently, the library Board isn’t interested in the public that pays for the library through taxes - and now will be purchasing its books! Why didn’t the Board trim time off of the other days with delayed openings and/or early closures to gain the seventh day?

ABG doesn’t want to see people lose their jobs to balance the budget whenever and wherever possible. But there seems to be an awful lot of personnel employed in a library with limited hours and no new books and other media that would need to be placed on shelves. Perhaps we can lower the heat a few degrees during the winter and raise the air-conditioning a few degrees during the summer for some savings. Maybe we can add a freestanding interior level in the chalet area, foregoing the award winning and wasteful design and utilize all of the unused space “up” there.

The design of the building lends itself to nothing of substance for the library experience. They’ve added little usable space for books and other media, which may not be all that bad since we cannot afford to purchase more books anyway. Many have been critical of the operation of the library and stated openly for the Library to create its own taxing district. ABG doesn’t believe we need any more taxation of anything. We need management at the library. We also need management in the Town. We continue to hope that someone will beat The Paul in the next election. We can only hope.