Our Library Needs Us - Editorial
Last week we visited the Jonathan Bourne Public Library. We love visiting the library, but this trip was not for pleasure—it was to see the state of the building for ourselves.
With so much recent discussion about plans for the aging library building, we were excited to learn of the three concepts put forth at the public engagement meeting at the end of January. The concepts were solid, the community input was great. Library Director Irja Finn said the turnout for the meeting, estimated at around 50 people, was unlike anything she had seen before for that type of meeting. Two concepts were ultimately advanced, both of which involved constructing a new building while incorporating preserved pieces of the current structure. The library renovation project was going full steam ahead, with several additional meetings planned between now and May’s Annual Town Meeting. Things were looking up.
But something went awry around mid-February. Select board chairwoman Mary Jane Mastrangelo suggested the project press pause in order to apply for state funding through future grant cycles. Financially speaking, it is a sound recommendation, but it would force the project into limbo until the 2027-28 grant cycle, with groundbreaking potentially coming in 2030. Knowing the condition of the library, and having seen it for ourselves, we feel strongly that pressing pause in favor of potential funding down the road is not in the best interest of Bourne’s residents.
The gaping hole in the ceiling of the library’s upstairs meeting room is jarring to see. We are not being facetious, either—the hole is quite large, and is jerry-rigged with some duct tape and plastic tarping to ensure the leaking water drains into a 55-gallon drum placed underneath, so as to not soak the carpet of the room. Wall and ceiling plaster is cracking in the Children’s Room, and the window nook at the rear of the main adult section is so drafty and cold that the library actually has a space heater in that section to keep patrons warm while they enjoy the library’s spaces. In contrast, other areas are so warm that you find yourself taking layers off and putting them back on as you explore the library’s nooks and crannies.
Todd Benedict, vice chairman of the public library board of trustees and former chairman of the feasibility committee, wound up resigning as chairman after the February 11 select board meeting, when the suggestion to put things on hold was made. Mr. Benedict, as the retired operations manager for the New York Public Library, knows a thing or two about libraries. He oversaw the maintenance and upkeep of 85 branches and, in applying his expertise to the Bourne project, was dismayed at the “soured” working relationship between the feasibility committee and the town. The building has not been maintained to any acceptable standard in the last 40 years, he told the select board, and he is “worried about the success of any project in this type of management.” We are, too, but like everyone involved, we want what is best for both the town and library.
The Jonathan Bourne Public Library is a wonderful place, staffed with wonderful people who are passionate about serving the community. And the community deserves a better building, for sure—but more importantly, so does the staff. They deserve better working conditions. The current building, with its leaky roof, falling ceiling tiles and an unreliable climate, will not cut it for the next five years; it just won’t. The building is, to put it succinctly, “inadequate.” The consultant’s analysis of the current building said as much, and each of those reports—structural, mechanical and electrical—are accessible on the town’s website.
If the application for the state’s public library construction grant program had been submitted last year, we might be having a different conversation today—but it wasn’t, and now here we are. So what now? The town’s balking at the proposed Town Meeting article seeking $150,000 for the cost of the library building design and the salary of an owner’s project manager is understandable given the other big-ticket items coming down the pipeline, like the south side fire station. We know it does not come from a place of nonappreciation for the library. Ms. Mastrangelo said it herself at one of the feasibility committee’s recent meetings: “There are, without the library, $110 million of capital requests on the five-year capital plan. So it’s not that we don’t value the library…. It’s that we are facing, as a town, really tough decisions about what we’re going to do, what we can afford and what the taxpayers are willing to pay for.”
She is right. Tough decisions will have to be made, and it is impossible to please everyone all of the time. Knowing what we know about the community’s appreciation for its library, its spaces, services and programs, though, we can only hope that Bourne’s taxpayers see the value in upgrading their library.