No Decision By Finance Board Regarding Library Funds

An error in properly posting the Sept. 19 agenda of the town's Board of Finance meeting caused Monday night's meeting to be an informational one only, said Chairman Bradford Sullivan.

"We cannot take any motions tonight," he said.

No motions meant no decisions on one highly-anticipated agenda item - restoring funds to the Henry Carter Hull Library.

Many members of the library board and its director were in attendance, only to be disappointed that no decision would be reached.

The Board of Finance said they would rescheduled the meeting. No date was announced. 

In May following the defeat of the town referendum vote, the Finance Board cut $100,000 from the (at the time proposed) 2011-2012 budget. 

In a , voters soundly rejected a proposed town and school budget of $46.09 million.

After the town budget passed in its , the library board made changes to its hours, staff and services.

They reduced their operations by 14 hours, closed both weekend days this summer, cut children's services, cut the number of museum passes available to residents, and cut database services such as extra newspapers and magazines and online paid services such as Ancestry.com. In addition, part-time workers lost hours and full-time staff members took a reduction in pay.

During the Sept. 19 Board of Finance meeting, a few attendees spoke in favor of restoring the funds and a few spoke against such an action.

Laurie Santos stated that in years past, the board was known to make cuts equally across all departments - not so this year regarding the "disproportionate" cuts to the library, she said.

Kirk Carr, a member of the Clinton Taxpayers Association, urged the finance board to send the request back to the Board of Selectmen with a request for a recommendation to reallocate budget lines to stay within the referendum approved budget, or to "kill the measure altogether."