27 May 2003

Henry M. Thomas, III
President & CEO
Urban League of Springfield

Dear Mr. Thomas,

I am writing to urge you most strenuously to back out of your "private" real estate transaction that would have the Urban League owning the Mason Square Library. This deal is anything but private. Look above the doorway of the library and you'll see the words "Springfield City Library." For the past 139 years the city of Springfield and the residents of Springfield have donated the lion's share of the resources and operating costs to the Springfield library system. The deal that you made with the SLMA to buy the libraries was done after the City Council asked the SLMA not to close or divest itself of any library until after its citizen study committee had made a recommendation as to whether the city should take over the library system. The City Council then condemned the sale, and you disregarded this.

Private? As a taxpayer in Springfield, I object most strenuously to having to provide the Urban League with new central air conditioning and furnace, a new security system, new andscaping, a dehumidified and renovated basement, etc. We citizens of Springfield meant these improvements for the Mason Square Library.

If your deal was good for the community, why was it done in such secrecy? Are you aware that the executive board of the SLMA kept this "private" real estate transaction secret from its board of advisors? Why have you refused to respond publicly to Ben Swan Jr.'s press release of 23 May? How can you say that this deal is good for the community when the McKnight and Old Hill neighborhood councils oppose it? Moreover, the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners advocates open meetings for libraries than are publicly funded to the extent that the Springfield library system is, and the transactions between the SLMA and Urban League should never have been kept secret in the first place.

Annie Curran, a resident of the Mason Square neighborhood, endowed a public library in the neighborhood in which she lived out of love both for the neighborhood and for libraries and books. There is currently about $2 million left in that endowment fund to operate the Mason Square Library. It should been the very last branch to be closed or sold because the endowment
would have kept it running for many years to come. Which leads again to the secretiveness of the real estate transaction into which you entered, and its appearance of impropriety. Joe Carvalho has admitted to being on the board of the Urban League for 10 years, which adds glaringly to the fact that this looks like nothing but a "sweetheart" deal. It's not a matter of what the Urban League has done and can continue to do for residents of the community surrounding the Mason Square Library. We allwish the Urban League well, but in appropriate offices somewhere in the neighborhood, not by usurping the neighhorhood library.

By entering into this real estate transaction, you've shown a marked disrespect for elected city officials. You've shown a similar disrespect for the elected representatives of the neighborhood councils in the communities the Urban League represents and for the residents who elected them. This is disturbing in itself, but it's more so because you are
vice-chair of the Massachusetts Board of Education, a political appointment.

Libraries are an emotional issue, Mr. Thomas. The groundswell of public sentiment against the closing of branch libraries and the sale of the Mason
Square Library is enormous. At public meetings of the City Council's library study committee and at Ben Swan's recent press conference, I kept hearing the same thing from residents of the Mason Square community:

1) our library is a gem in a blighted neighborhood, a source of pride, and

2) we have always been second-class citizens, and why should other neighborhoods in the city have their own libraries under the new city library system and we are the ones who get to have some space in someone else's building. The Urban League's taking over the Mason Square Library is wrong in so many ways. The residents and elected officials of Springfield have spoken: we intend to take over the library system and do whatever we have to to make it strong again. The Mason Square Library is an integral part of that system. If you stand in the way, you will be doing a disservice both to the growth of Springfield and to the community that the Urban League serves.

Sincerely,
Jeri Stolk