First of all, thank you to those who made the effort to come to this joint meeting with the Permanent Building Committee (PBC), Selectboard (SB), and Board of Library Trustees (BoT). I understand some people were waiting with the cheerleader parents on the side of the building and then went home.
The meeting should have been in the auditorium; people were pouring out of the upstairs Selectboard chambers and we needed extra chairs. The number of people was not expected by the PBC, which recommended the chamber over the auditorium.
The meeting was recorded, but the recording isn’t yet up. I will share the link as soon as it is.
Chris McGown (PBC chair) did a relatively good job of introducing the project and trying to keep the meeting on track, but it did last two hours.
No one spoke out against the library project; everyone there seemed to be a library supporter. Most people who spoke, spoke in favor of a new library. If they didn’t explicitly say, “We need new,” their comments could be construed as neutral. The parking lot actually became a bit of an issue (too big? too small?) as well as potential traffic on Chestnut St.
A good point (as we expected) brought up by a member of the SB — what is the plan for the old library? It won’t pass at town meeting if there isn’t a plan. Also probably true. There was a brief debate about which board was responsible for the library once the library moves out: the SB or the BoT? The consensus was that everyone had to work together. Might be a good time to get the planning board involved.
No one asked me to speak, for which I am grateful.
I will share the recording as soon as it’s posted.
In the meantime, if you didn’t take one of my library tours, I have scheduled more. It’s a chance to see the staff-only spaces and learn a bit about the building’s history. Registration requested.
If you can’t make it in person, there is a video tour online.
