Library faces decertification early next month
Adding to its recent string of financial woes, it’s likely that the Wareham Free Library will soon be decertified.
Bethany Gay, Chair of the Wareham Free Library Board of Trustees, said the library will lose its certification on Nov. 6 at the next state Board of Library Commissioners meeting.
Decertification will result in a loss of state aid to the cash-strapped library and patrons won't be able to borrow books from other libraries, except for Freetown, Somerset and Assonet. Those libraries agreed to work with the Wareham library, according to Gay. The state aid grants from the past two years have equaled about $38,000.
"Basically, you'll only be able to get books from the Wareham Free Library," said Gay.
Over the last few years the library has seen a steep and continuous decrease in funding, and as a result a decrease in hours and services. The Spinney branch in Onset also closed this past July as a result.
The library received $125,000 in funding from the town for the fiscal year starting on July 1. That is $300,000 less than the budget from just two years ago and what the library would have received in the Proposition 2 1/2 override budget that was overwhelmingly voted down in June.
The state Board of Library Commissioners said in April that the library would not be certified for 2015 unless the town's appropriation to the library was restored to the fiscal year 2013 level of $432,835.
Gay said that on Oct. 30, there will be a joint meeting of the Library Board of Trustees, the Friends of the Wareham Free Library and the Wareham Library Foundation at 5 p.m. It is open to the public, and ideas for the future of the library will be discussed.
She said people who can't make that meeting can e-mail the Trustees with their thoughts and concerns.
"Basically we're trying to get from the community what they want the library to look like in the future," said Gay.