Saugus delivers blow to library

SAUGUS – While the Senior Center and the Commission on Disabilities came out winners at Monday’s special Town Meeting, members balked at helping the library.Town Meeting members voted to refer one article to the Finance Committee and push a second off to the next special Town Meeting.Library Trustee Pat Fish said she is not sure where that leaves the public library but she does know it will include further reduced hours.The Library Trustees asked meeting members to appropriate $23,575 to get the library through the remainder of the fiscal year. In a second article the trustees asked to be allowed to shift money within its own budget.Library Trustees Chairwoman Mary Ellen Picardi said they needed the additional money for salaries so the library could become more consistent in its hours of operation.Under the current system, Picardi said the library has two full-time staff and seven part-time members, which gives them the equivalent of five full-time members.If someone calls in sick or takes a vacation the library is often forced to close due to insufficient staffing levels.Finance Committee member Ken DePato argued that his committee has been preaching fiscal restraint but if the appropriation was approved it would actually increase the library’s budget by $23,575.He said he was also against the second article, which essentially would have used money specifically set aside for buying books to be used for salaries.When he questioned why the library had a reference librarian on its payroll when one had not been authorized the trustees were also accused of being nefarious.Picardi said the payroll expense for a reference librarian was an encoding error and the accounting office was aware of it.Finance Committee Chairman Robert Palleschi called it a credibility issue and faulted them for blaming the Accounting Department for its questionable actions.Town Meeting member Peter Manoogian said he wondered if the town was wasting its money on the library by supporting an entity that wasn’t benefiting the town. He said it seemed strange to him the library operated longer hours on fewer dollars just a year ago.”Now suddenly the sky is falling in,” he said. “Something is not right there and they’re off track for certification.”The library must be open a minimum of 50.5 hours per week for certification. Fish said to make it through the end of the fiscal year the library would likely operate between 28 and 30 hours per week.While several Town Meeting members claimed people in this room don’t support the library, meeting members failed to support either of the library’s articles.Following the vote Library Director Ewa Jankowska left the meeting shaking her head.”I can’t,” she said when pressed for a reaction. “I can’t even comment. I just can’t say anything.”