New
Hartford library may close over finances
Town withholding payments until board controversy ends
Posted Aug 11,
2010 @ 10:07 PM NEW
The New Hartford Public Library may close
Sept. 1 if an impasse over who is on its board of trustees is not settled
before then. The town has been withholding its funding
from the library because of the ongoing controversy over appointments to the
board. Meanwhile, the state Department of Education,
which oversees libraries, has gotten involved and is holding off on making any
final decision about the board until September. “We will have to give notice to our employees
next week,” library board President Mary DuRoss said after a contentious Town
Board meeting Wednesday evening. The library is expected to receive $475,000
this year from the town, and the total library budget is $638,938. Figures were
not available Wednesday night on how much the town has withheld from the
library. Town Supervisor Patrick Tyksinski said at
Wednesday’s meeting he would not release the funds until the question of who is
on the board was resolved. “I am not going to turn over a check until
they have a quorum of legitimate board members,” he said. As the controversy has unfolded, the library
has been using its reserve funds to cover operating expenses. Now, however,
those reserves are almost exhausted, DuRoss said. DuRoss said the library now is running “in
deficit mode.” That deficit was $29,000 in July and is expected to grow to
$90,000 by September, she said. A funding payment from In May, it was revealed that members of the
library board may have been appointed improperly over the years and as a
result, none of the 11 library board members was legitimate. The town’s stance is that the Town Board is
supposed to appoint library board members to their five-year terms. But the
library board had been appointing its own members for six years. The Town Board then appointed Edmund Wiatr
Jr., but the library board has contested the town’s interpretation of the rules
and the other library board members have remained on until the situation is
resolved. On Tuesday, Tyksinski met with library
officials to hammer out a compromise. The two groups agreed that Wiatr would
remain on the board, along with some, but not all, of the current library board
members. But when they took their plan to the state,
they were told that the state Board of Regents would make the final decision,
town officials said. That won’t be until sometime in September,
town officials said. Asked if he would allow the library to close
its doors, Tyksinski would say only, “There is always a way around a
situation.” |