Library Budget Cut Is Shortsighted

To the Editor:

We’ve lived in Newtown for over 35 years. During that time we’ve raised our kids and seen them get a good education; we’ve walked our various dogs thousands of miles and appreciated the resolve of sensible and forward thinking conservation and land use policy; we’ve watched or straggled in 35 Labor Day parades; we’ve taken advantage of both Dickinson and Treadwell Parks, especially the tennis courts; we’ve had our house saved by the volunteer fire department; we’ve delivered hundreds of meals on wheels; and we’ve attended more than a few pancake breakfasts and spaghetti suppers in the name of various charitable causes.

In other words we love our town and we’re proud of it, and we especially appreciate the way that the efforts of volunteer groups mesh with local government to make Newtown a vital, thriving community, whose natural beauty is matched by the social, spiritual, and intellectual investment of so many of its residents.

When friends visit us from out of town — whether from the big city or from thousands of miles away — the two places that we make a point of showing them are the view from Castle Hill, and the library.

The first is classic scenic Newtown: subject of so many photos, postcards, paintings, and memories.

The second is a success story of modern Newtown: a beautiful building, with ample space to accommodate not only books, videos, computers, art exhibits, historical artifacts, concerts, and special collections, but more importantly, gatherings of people.

The wonderful thing about the Booth Library is how richly it is used. It’s a place for countless book groups to meet, for the Flagpole Photographers, for Literacy Volunteers to work with clients, for job search support groups, for Business and Professional Women to make Christmas decorations, for preschoolers to listen to stories and meet the Bridgeport Bluefish and pet llamas and touch owls and tarantulas in special nature programs; it’s a place for armchair travelers to see slide presentations on distant reaches, from Borneo to Shackleton’s Antarctic; and, it’s a warm and inviting refuge where the lonely and isolated are made as welcome as everyone else.

And all the above are just the ones that I’ve noticed personally during the time I’ve spent there.

So my point is, when you’ve got something that works so well, it is incredibly short-sighted and foolish to eviscerate it by cutting its budget by 16 percent, or a total of $130,000 when the Selectmen’s $80,000 January, and the Board of Finance’s additional $50,000 cuts are combined.

If the thinking behind this is connected to the Friends of the Library’s successful book sales, and the presumption that “well, since the Friends raised $100,000 for the library last year, the town shouldn’t have to pay for it as well,” that is misguided for two reasons: Although the hundreds plus volunteers who work year round to make the book sale happen will continue to do so, there is no guarantee that they will always make the kind of money that they did in the last two years, especially since the fate of Bridgeport Hall (whose space is absolutely necessary to accommodate the sale) is very much in limbo.

More importantly, to assume that the effort and commitment of dedicated volunteers absolves the town government of responsibility to support an institution as basic as a public library, misunderstands the nature of what community is. As Band Parents and PTA members we spent many years selling wreaths and flowers and fertilizer and cheese and sausage, to generate funds to support special programs that we didn’t expect the town to pay for. In return, the town never acted to reduce the regular school budget by the amount of money we had raised to provide guest artists or book fairs or art seminars or band uniforms.

Peter & Julie Stern

19 Park Lane, Newtown                                              March 17, 2004