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I strongly favor full funding for Curtis Memorial
Library.
It is incomprehensible that a town the size and
character of Harpswell would not have a full service library. In addition
to its many books, videos, magazines, journals, research facilities, it
offers many other services such as lecture series, book discussion groups,
reference assistance, web assistance, friendly faces, meeting rooms and
more.
The amount of funding they have requested seems
fair to me. It represents less than 1% of the Harpswell budget (while
Brunswick pays well over 2% of their much larger budget). Harpswell had
more than 17% of the actual use of the Library, but last year we only paid
8.7% of the municipal funding. That represents less than half of what one
could call our “share.” This year the library has increased their request
to 9.5% of municipal funding or $95,918.
I agree that $95,918 is a large increase from the
8.7 % or $85,260 of last year, I also remember that the Library reduced
its request last year because our Budget Committee’s asked it for a
reduction. When our share reaches 10%, the large increases will stop. This
year the Library budget as a whole is only projected to increase 3%, quite
a reasonable amount. Therefore in the future
When compared with other libraries in Maine, Curtis
is a bargain. Out of 67 towns with populations of 5000 or more, Harpswell
is first in library items per capita, third in hours open per capita, but
44th in expenditure per capita. We have some excellent local
libraries in Orr’s Island and Cundy’s Harbor, but no public library on
Harpswell Neck. These libraries are excellent for what they provide in
popular fiction, children’s books and video’s, but they do not have the
depth of service available at Curtis. Also, they are not cheap. Cundy’s
Harbor with about 4000 library items requested $11,000 or $2.75 per item,
while Curtis with about 100,000 items requested only $95,918 or about $.96
per item. Furthermore, if Harpswell does not fund Curtis, our local
libraries may lose some of their services or charge more for them.
I am probably one of those shorefront property
owners who Selectman Weil was trying to protect from an excessive tax
increase. However, I do not feel protected, I feel deprived.
Harpswell prides itself on providing minimal
services. When I looked through the town report, I noticed that we
appropriated $117,275 for Shellfish Conversation. I am happy to pay my
share of that sum to support our clammers, but I feel the library should
also be supported. I feel as a taxpayer the services Harpswell provides
for me should include police, fire, roads, recycling center, shellfish
protection and a library |