|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
SPENCER – Ideally, Cheryl Donahue, director of the Richard Sugden Library, would always have a minimum of four people working on the building’s two floors. She would add one staff person and extend hours on Tuesdays and Wednesdays to 7 p.m.
“I hope this beautiful gem remains vital and active for the community,” she said.
Donahue was the latest department head to appear before the Board of Selectmen on October 28. Selectmen are hearing requests in anticipation of a possible operational Proposition 2 ½ override question next spring.
Donahue said the library currently has three full-time staff members, three part-timers working 19 ½ hours per week and three people working Saturdays for five hours. She explained the part-time people “are in the Saturday rotation,” providing coverage.
The newest staff person is 22-years-old, Donahue said, and “doing all kinds of great stuff,” teaching art. “She’s a breath of youth among us,” she noted.
The library director talked about how the library is like a community center, offering a variety of programs such as Monday morning talks with a “history bent” featuring local historian Mary Baker Wood and knitting and crocheting groups, as a few examples.
In October, she said, the library had 48 programs with 500 participants.
“You can’t quantify the services we provide the public,” Donahue noted.
The director said she gets a lot of feedback from people coming from other communities who are impressed by how much Spencer can do with limited resources.
“I’m very proud of what we do with the staff we have,” Donahue said. She said she is “always banging the drum,” to get the library back open 40 hours again.
Also, the director said, it is a huge project to bring the building itself “where it needs to be,” with repairs being done in increments. Next up is roofing work.
“The building is really a community center…for all ages,” Donahue said. “It’s a really important asset to this community and citizens. I am pleased by the love people have for the library.”
Donahue said the department is heavily supported by Cultural Council funds as well as grants people such as artists obtain to bring about programs. The library also receives state funding.
“It is a win-win for us,” she added.
“An ideal scenario,” she said, would be to hire a new part-timer or give more hours to the Saturday staff.
“The more bodies you have, the more you can do,” Donahue explained.
Like other departments, things get tricky when personnel are out for vacations, illness, personal days, etc.
“When it is only one person, it is challenging to shoulder additional responsibilities,” she said.
Doing more with less “is not really sustainable.”
Selectman Ralph Hicks said it is “high time,” the library hours are extended to 7 p.m. the two days it closes at 5 p.m.
He also said he applauded the Saturday openings once again—given it is probably the day many residents have free to visit the library.
Hicks said the reduced hours overall were the result 10 years ago of school department debt and not the library’s fault. Town Administrator Jeff Bridges said when the operating budget increases, keep in mind the materials budget (16%) also must rise.
Selectman Anthony Pepe requested copies of each department’s budget so that he could ‘’run the numbers,” with the asks factored in.
Earlier, Principal Assessor Linda LeBlanc spoke about the overlay account for exemptions and abatements.
She said the deadline for applications is April 1. Last year, there were 26 applications and the current number is 22. A few years ago, she added, the total was five or six.
She said the senior (tax) work off amount increased from $1,000 to $2,000.
Last year, exemptions and abatements totaled $123,000. LeBlanc said she anticipated the need of “roughly $155,000,” next year.
Bridges said the Heroes Act allows towns to increase benefits for veterans and is a local option. He said it amounted to about $50,000 to run in Spencer.
The next special workshop to meet with department heads will be on November 25.
