Shutesbury needs a new library to replace the tiny MN Spear Memorial Library, a gift to the town in 1902.
With only 768 square feet, story hour is held on the floor after bookcases are moved. The building lacks running water, and in a town where fewer than half the households have access to high-speed internet, people can be seen year-round in their cars using the library’s Wi-Fi.
A plan for a new library obtained 89 percent of Town Meeting approval in 2010. After being awarded a grant that would have paid more than half the cost of the new library, a Proposition 2½ override obtained the required Town Meeting approval in 2011 but the ballot vote ended in a tie at 522 and the grant was forfeited.
I am ashamed to live in a town that couldn’t build a library and fought like children. The town is divided to this day like some Dr. Seuss butter-side uppers and downers. I was chairman of the Board of Trustees and Library Facility Needs Assessment Committee. It was disheartening to see years of effort undone by a last-minute campaign that portrayed a desperately needed community investment as a golden Taj Mahal for coffee-drinking newcomers.
Trustees decided not to try again in 2017 for the grant. I believe it is shortsighted to think that waiting longer will quiet the small group of opposition that halted the process in 2001, and again stirred up social tensions and emotional divisiveness in 2011.
The job of the trustees is to provide adequate library services. I strongly urge them to adjust the plan to restore popular support and build a sensible and inspiring library for our children and grandchildren.
Karen Lynne Traub
Shutesbury