City Council voted 5 to 4 to Cut $500,000 from the City Library Budget
The mayor told Charlie Ryan that he has NO INTENTION
OF HIRING 11 MORE FIREFIGHTERS with the money deducted from the library budget,
and that not even the Fire Department is pressuring him to do so!
Therefore, we must turn around one or two of the city councilors who voted with
Foley last night, June 26th and persuade them to vote to restore this cut when
the mayor re-submits this line item. Please call all of these City
Councilors and lean on them to restore the money. We need to turn one or
two in order to restore these essential funds.
The Councilors who voted for the $500,000 Library
Budget Cut:
Bill Foley: 783-2201
Bud L. Williams: 783-9592
Jose Tosado: 782-1949
Domenic J. Sarno: 734-1173
Timothy Rooke: 747-1825
THE FACTS:
The $500,000 cut is a 30% cut from last year's library appropriation and a 40%
cut from the 2002 budget, at least double the percentage hit taken by other
municipal departments, and a disproportionate cut by anybody's definition. Cuts
of this magnitude cannot possibly justified to the Massachusetts Board of Library
Commissioners which will surely cut off direct state funding, disqualify Springfield
from applying for state grants or federal grants they administer, and probably
decertify our library system. Decertification would mean that Springfield citizens
cannot borrow books from surrounding communities or participate in the inter-library
loan program.
Lean on these councilors as hard as you can! We need to turn one or two in order
to restore these essential funds.
Please also call the Mayor's office (787-6100) and thank him for his support
for the new library department and its full funding.
The third and final city council vote to establish a city Library Department
will be held at 7:00pm Monday evening, June 30 in the city council chamber.
Please note the early time. Later in the evening, Library Study Committee vice-chair
Melinda Pellerin-Duck will also be honored by the city council with a citation
noting her selection as 2003 Massachusetts Teacher of the Year. Melinda is a
veteran of the 2001 initiative campaign to increase library hours at times convenient
to our children.
Please do your best to do as many of these things as you are able. Thanks very
much for your help!
....Sheila McElwaine
For Documents on the Massachusetts Board
of Library Commissioners Funding of Local Libraries