Elsewhere in this paper you can read Fran Maye's story about how Kennett Square Borough Council voted to work with East Marlborough and Kennett Townships to form a Library Task Force. Its goal is to clear the air and speed the healing after all the issues involving the Bayard Taylor Library's board this year.
I liked Mayor Matt Fetick's quote as he spoke in favor of getting a group from outside the library board involved: "It's very difficult to be able to self-heal."
If you've been following the issue, you know that the library board, headed by Susan Mackey-Kallis, has been embroiled in controversy since this spring, when they surprised the town by hanging a banner across State Street declaring that they had changed the library's name to the "Kennett Public Library." That decision led to increased public attention to, and concern over, how the library was being run. A feasibility study for the proposed new library shows that the public is not likely to donate money, largely because of lack of trust in the board. (No one, however, disputes the quality of the library's programs.)
It's still unclear how the Task Force will operate or what they will focus on. Its members so far include Collis Townsend of Kennett Township and Tom Swett of East Marlborough, both of whom served on the library board many years ago.
The suggestions I've heard for getting the board back on track are (1) changing the name back to Bayard Taylor Memorial Library; (2) bringing new members onto the board, ideally people from different circles of the community who have expertise in nonprofit management and fundraising; (3) refocusing the "culture" of the board so that it is more open and less divisive; and (4) safeguarding the library's valuable historical collection.
Joseph Lordi, a town historian who served as library director for 30 years, told me he would be happy to serve as a resource person for the task force, especially in terms of the latter objective. The safety of that collection has been a subject of concern since it became public that the 1911 Wanamaker tall-case clock, donated by the Darlington family to the library, was removed during this spring's renovations and has been in library vice-president Karen Ammon's house. Library director Donna Murray said the clock would be put back on display at the library as soon as a suitable place could be found for it; no firm date was given.
No comments:
Post a Comment