March 18, 2008...7:32 pm
Coleman wants Library open, now!
Bill Coleman who, in case you’re not on his email list, has sent a barrage of emails over the past week calling for the Public Library to be open on Mondays, has brought his case to City Council.
It would cost $375,000 for 20 Mondays, Coleman says.
And while councilors agree in concept, some seem to think that there are other more cost effective measures right now, such as the BookMobile.
Speaking of the BookMobile, Gary Rosen says that the city Barnes & Noble has agreed to donate a percentage of all proceeds on May 16 & May 17 to the program.
Now, this has quickly disintegrated into a major procedural issue…Rosen says library issues fall into his Health & Human Services committee; Mayor Lukes and Councilor Kate Toomey say it falls under the Education Committee.
Rosen says the library has fallen under committee’s jurisdiction since the committee restructuring this year, Mayor Lukes says it never should have been there to begin with.
“Do we have a manual yet?” asks Councilor Clancy.
8:31
6 Comments
March 19, 2008 at 7:54 am
Isn’t this sort of effort what the Friends of the WPL are for? Could Mr. Coleman perhaps channel his efforts through them to get this working? I’d love to see the library open on Mondays (at least Frances Perkins is!).
March 19, 2008 at 5:27 pm
There is also a WPL Foundation that has assisted with defraying some of the cost of opening on Sundays.
http://www.worcpublib.org/support/foundation.html
March 19, 2008 at 6:54 pm
As a regular library-goer and constant taxpayer, it really is sort of appalling that they have not only gutted the branch library program, but close the main one on Mondays and most Sundays. It’s really just sickening, and made no better by today’s annual unveiling of the wonderful city worker salary report.
March 20, 2008 at 4:02 am
Some staff work in the Library on Monday, but not enough to cover all the work stations.
March 21, 2008 at 9:13 pm
The proposal I made to the city council on 3/18/08 to open the library for twenty Mondays would cost 165k.
The cost of opening the library for one year would cost 374k.
In my proposal the Worcester Library Foundation,
a non profit 501 c3 would establish a restricted
depository account for donations made to open the libraty on Monday.
My petition has been sent to the city council education committee chaired by Kate Toomey.
Kate must call a meeting of this sub committee and hold a public hearing to dicuss my petition.
Then the committee must vote to recoment acceptence or rejection of my proposal
to the full city council and they must vote to
recommend this fund raiding proposal to the city manager who must in turn grant promission to proceed.
Contact Councilor Kate Toomey
and ask her to hold a hearing of the education
sub committee.
You can reach her through Mayor Lukes office at 508-799-1153..
Let Penny Johnson know that you support opening the Library on Monday at 508-799-1690
To help write a letter to the editor and blog your friends to do so…
If we could get ten thousand people to contribute
$37.40 would could open the library for one year
2008-2009. People want our main library open
on Mondays.
To help contact me:
Bill Coleman - 508-826-1307 cell
March 24, 2008 at 9:12 am
I don’t know why the city council or manager need to approve fund-raising.
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