Article 18 - Upsetting the apple cart, Part II

It is a rare year when some part of the budget doesn't cause some sort of controversy. This year, it revolved around our libraries.

The Falmouth Public Library is in the uncomfortable position of having to cut hours. Between the reduction in state aid and increased expenses (more on this later), there just isn't enough money to keep the doors open.

Precinct 4 Representative and former librarian Cynthia Botelho was one of many people who contacted me about the reduction in hours at the library. Specifically, she was concerned about the drastic cut in hours at the East Falmouth branch. The March 27 edition of the Falmouth Enterprise featured a letter with couple of tables showing how drastic the cuts will be.

The Main branch will suffer a 15% cut in hours, with an 8% cut in "student hours" (the amount of time the branch will be available after school hours), the North Falmouth branch will suffer a 23% drop in hours, with no cut in student hours, but the East Falmouth branch will suffer a 37% cut in hours with - get this - an 80% cut in student hours.

Why such drastic cuts to the East Falmouth branch?

So far, I've heard no good reason other than the fact that the library as a whole has to cut expenses. Aside from a cut in state funding, town meeting learned that we don't know how to turn out the lights at the library. The electric bill has soared from $31,420 in 2007 to $95,664 in 2008 - more than a 200% increase!

Mrs. Botelho tried to stem the loss in hours by adding $55,000 to the library's budget for salary and wages. She proposed cutting a modest $4,100 from the $21,100 budgeted for out of state travel, $2,000 from the $20,330 in aid given to the Woods Hole Library, $20,000 from the $66,750 in "other expenses" from the DPW Snow and ice control and $29,420 in free cash.

Aside from the fact that the out of state travel budget was only being reduced by 20%, several folks again defended the expense of sending people out of state; they argued for cutting services to citizens before cutting unnecessary expenses. I just cannot fathom that.

Tuesday before town meeting, I spoke at length with a member of the Woods Hole Library board. There was concern over the suggestion that the the funds granted to the Woods Hole Library be transferred to the town library system.

I wasn't entirely opposed to this idea, since the Woods Hole Library is open 30 hours a week, the funding given to them this year is the same as the funding given for the past two years, and they aren't cutting back on their hours. In other words, there is no shared sacrifice. All three branches of the town library are suffering cutbacks to one degree or another, but not the Woods Hole Library. Is that fair?

I supported Mrs. Botelho's amendment, but it failed. Personally, I think most folks wanted to keep the library open longer, but were fearful of opening the proverbial flood gates to still more debate over what should and should not be funded.

An aside...I forgot to sum-up this article when first posted...While I would have liked to see a few tweaks here and there, I voted "aye" for the $107,569,142 Fiscal Year 2010 budget. Now that I've been through this process once, I'm going to try to make some changes for FY2011.