SAUGUS — At its last meeting the Library Board of Trustees and Director Alan Thibeault discussed initiatives and upcoming developments so far in 2025. The meeting reviewed the current budget and how things have been running this year.
Thibeault started the meeting with his report and the financial statement for the library.
“17% of the year (is) remaining. We’re in good shape. We’re down to 21% of our total funds at this point, the bulk of it, of course, being salaries. We did have some people who left, and we saved some money there,” he said.
He continued that the library will be closed on May 26 for Memorial Day, and after this they will move to their summer schedule. The summer schedule means the library will be open Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m.-8 p.m., but will close at 2 p.m. on Fridays and will not be open on Saturdays. This will remain until Labor Day.
Next on the agenda Thibeault talked about the summer reading program, a staple at the library.
“We’re going to hold it for children, teens and adults here in the library like we always do. This year’s theme is level up at your library… It’s referring to leveling up your reading and doing more reading and getting better at it,” he said.
Thibeault said that the library promotes this because many kids don’t read during the summer months and “as a result, their grades might slide a little bit and they find it hard to get back into the school year in September.” He said the program gives them a chance to maintain and maybe improve their reading comprehension over the summer.
“So, we’re going to be doing those three areas, children, adult and teen and I’ll have more information and more specifics on the three programs available at next month’s meeting,” Thibeault said. “We’ve gone ahead and booked eight bands for the summer concert series beginning July 9th through the 27th.”
He explained that the shows at the Saugus Iron Works will be at 6 p.m., but for the last shows in the series, the time may be pushed up to 5 p.m. or 5:30 p.m. so that there is still some light left outside.
