Comments:

"The president of the Urban League has thumbed his nose at the Mason Square community with his statement to the media, "this is a private real estate sale, and ..."

.....Carmenceita P. Jones

Read the full letter that appeared in the Valley Advocate

"I am a senior citizen now and cannot get out to evening meetings anymore as much as I would like to do so.

Fortunately, I have a computer which has enabled me to click on your website and keep constantly updated on what was going on with our neighborhood libraries.

I am pleased that the City will now have a Library Commission which will provide oversight to the system. However, I am devastated over the Sale of the Mason Square Library
(my library).

Our sons, all adults now, were avid users of this branch. When we came to Springfield in 1963, the first thing we discovered was that there was a library less than three blocks from where we were living. I have always thought of it as a "gem" in this neighborhood.

Thank you again for posting so much information about this issue.

I will certainly send an E-mail to the Davis Foundation."

.....Carmenceita P. Jones

"What I do know is Carvalho, Lee, and Emily have abandoned the library's commitment to the Mason Square area and all the work that Ann Curran, Bettye Webb, Ms. Humphries, and I did to make it an oasis in such an impoverished area. Now, the Association does not have a person of color above a grade 8 in the whoIe system. I drive down Monroe Street now (near Mason Square Library) and see hoards of kids skipping school in the middle of the day, see open drug dealing and other things that break my heart. I watched last summer when the Association would not fix the air conditioner (obviously stalling because they didn't want to spend money to fix it) at the so-called newly renovated M.S. and young women would walk to the library pushing baby carriages and find out that the place was closed because of the heat! I go in there every Friday and noticed that all of the regular kids don't go there anymore. I hope they are not lost to the temptations of the "streets."

....Reggie Wilson, 20 veteran Reference Librarian at the Central Library and recently laid off Head Librarian at the Mason Square Branch

"My husband and I belong to the William Rice Foundation of the SMLA to which we donate a required $1,000 a year . For this we are elegantly entertained at various high- cost dinners and other events throughout the year at an additional cost per event. I wonder how many others may belong to this foundation and make the same generous donations.

My thoughts are that, if there are enough of us (say at least 10) we may collectively inform the organization that we plan discontinue these generous donations and membership to the foundation in view of their (SLMA's) insensitivity to the needs and desires of the citizens of our city and their apparant mismanagement of our tax dollars.

Are there any other members of the William Rice Foundation out there? If so, would you be interested in this approach? I personally have no idea where our $1,000 plus per year goes.

Any other bargaining ideas in this group?"

....Ginny White

"Clearly this is the SLMA's wish come true. Ten years ago they tried this very same thing and public outcry was such that they weren't allowed to do such a ridiculous thing. I think the fact that they can so proudly brag one day in the paper about spending $463,000 to build a ticket booth and the next day cry about laying off 40 "department" employees speaks volumes for their lack of understanding of the role they have taken on (voluntarily, of course, since they are a not for profit, private association.) Mayor Mike has said it himself and I think it is time for the public to push the issue. He said he has asked his department heads and city employees to think outside the box and begin to come up with some workable solutions to the financial crisis we're in right now. I think it is time to begin to think outside the box in terms of this organization. The SLMA would certainly seem to be less than capable of taking care of both of these vital services.

The outside the box solution it seems would be for the city to truly make the libraries a city department and its employees city employees. The department would then be held accountable in the same way that other departments are held accountable. They would be required to spend money in a way that the taxpayers see fit, not some board of out-of-towners. Let the museums continue as a not for profit private organization that can spend money as it sees fit. Perhaps combining of departments could then include some school department personnel and some library personnel working together to benefit all students and citizens in the city of Springfield. The school department seems to be very capable of getting grants that can be used for everything from equipment to staffing. Maybe they could help the libraries do the same. The SLMA seems to be very good at getting grants for things like fencing, air conditioning and ticket booths. Perhaps those things are important, but a ticket booth for a closed museum seems a bit of a waste. But we said that about computers in closed libraries five years ago and the SLMA didn't seem capable of comprehending that concept either. Let's hope there is someone in city government that can truly move us ahead, out of this quagmire and into a place that will make more sense for generations to come.

I suggest we call our city councilors and tell them its time to do what every other city in this country does. Have the libraries operated by the city for the citizens. Let the museums keep their not for profit private association status, and as citizens of the city of Springfield we will contribute when we can and what we can."

...Maureen Posner

"Some questions and observations about the decision to close the three branch libraries.

From the speed with which the closings were implemented it appears that a decision had already been made by the SLMA Board authorizing the staff to proceed with this action. When and under what circumstances was this decision made.

History would suggest that the SMLA has wanted to make this move for a long time. They tried 10 years ago but were turned back by public outcry. The three libraries in question were at the very end of the comprehensive renovation schedule...libraries with less circulation and less physical need, at least to meet ADA standards were upgraded before FP, ESplfd and Liberty. Why?

What is especially shocking is that the decision according to the SMLA in PERMANENT....a response to a crisis at a given point in time will have a PERMANENT negative impact on three neighborhoods! That is a very big decision and I respect the SMLA Board and Management to believe this action must have been discussed.

The Mayor, President of the City Council and Vice Chair of the School Committee sit on the SMLA Board...Did they participate in discussion leading up to this decision? If not, why not?

The library branch system is one of Springfield's finest assets...will we allow it to be permanently deminished without the slightest bit of public discussion?"

...Fidele Malloy

Other Comments:

''I agree and will support whatever measures are taken. I am absolutely floored by this and did not realize that Burke had made the comments you mentioned. I have time available (mostly Friday but some in between) to make calls. Just
get me a list and tell me what you want said. We need to also realize that our neighborhood is a walking neighborhood as well and most of the kids and many of the adults who use these services will never make it to East Forest Park once a week and definitely not to Sixteen Acres. I use the library at least 3 times a week and there always seems to be a steady flow of people. The idiots who made the comments in the newspaper that we don't need libraries anymore because we have the Internet need to be educated that the free Internet access at the library is always in use and that there are movies, DVDs and CDs available as well. Not everyone can just drive over to Barnes and Noble and fork out $25-$30 for a book. I am absolutely disgusted with this situation and feel ready to move as soon as possible. We are losing the very things that define us as civilized."

"... I am also shocked by this morning's article about dispensing with materials - the corpse is still warm. Is the "Library For Sale" sign going up this weekend? (It disturbed me earlier in the week to read that the library is planning
yet another building / demolition project in the quadrangle area. Where are these funds coming from? Why is it necessary to funnel everyone through a 'turnstile' type arrangement? Will they eventually block off all foot traffic access to the grounds of the quadrangle? Why are the neighborhoods ignored in decisions involving both the downtown area and the individual neighborhoods?) I certainly support your idea about a meeting with the other neighborhoods this weekend."

"...We should consider asking our statehouse delegation (Swan, Rogeness, Candaras, Rivera and Melconian) for a meeting on the decision by the SLMA to close the FP library?...

"I am just aghast that the D'Amours would sock it to us twice at the same intersection during the same week: not including the Belmont Ave. Food Mart among the stores they are taking over, and then the SLMA (Don D'Amour, chair of trustees) closes our library. Add this to the attempt to mess with FP Middle School and you have an excellent recipe for neighborhood collapse."

"We are frustrated at the lack of information available on how the decision was made. We, like most of the people I've talked to, want to understand the big picture. What factors weighed in the decision to cut the libraries and not another program or budget item? What is being preserved while our libraries are being sacrificed? Why are we the only city in the commonwealth with such drastic and immediate layoffs?

While most of us will probably continue to use the library system, there is a huge number of people, many of them school students, who will not have that luxury. Anyone who has been inside Forest Park Library on a weekday afternoon knows how heavily it is used by students after school -- to do homework, research, etc. The newspaper talks about lack of parking at FPL, but that is not the issue!! It's a walkers' library. I have students at STCC who walk there with their children from Pine Street. Huge numbers of people, especially young people, who use FPL will not have access to the libraries in Pine Point or Sixteen Acres."

Send Us Your Comments on this Issue
We Will Post Them Here.
(Due to space limitations, they may be edited)