We have had this information for some time but have waited for it to show up in the town’s minutes
Everything in Red is the legal published minutes that can be looked up for yourself on the town’s web site.
The “new Trustees” of the Thayer library have requested to double the budget for Thayer Library. On august 15th 2012 Select board Minutes. Trustee Harriet Charland asked the select board to take over the care (lawn mowing etc.) of Thayer Library. The Selectman stated that the Town halls Maintenance man did not have time to do this and they should include this in next year’s budget.
9/12 2012 Select board Minutes, Selectmen approve doubling Thayer’s budget from $2,000 to $4,000, The Budget Committee discussed this on 10/18 2012 and eventually approved it also. This is your Tax money.
The Trustees reasoning for increased budget are that they now are responsible for all the utilities of the library and upkeep on building and ground’s due to their bad decision making.
The past trustees for many years held a library lawn & book sale on Columbus day weekend. This event always brought many community members together for a fun time and help their local library make some decent money for that library’s running cost.
The New board can’t be bothered to do this and have cancelled it, but they have no problems or guilt holding their hands out asking you for your tax dollars
It must be noted that the new trustees falsely accused the past board and library director of being in-active and as the many of you who visited the library and attended the events know this to be untrue.
The New Trustees last community event was a birthday party for Jen Bellans dog at the library, sounds unreal but we are not making this up, the Library has literally gone to the dogs.
A little history on the Library,
For over a hundred years it has functioned without being a Burden on tax-payers because the library Director, who ran the library, took care of the building and grounds, paid for all the electric, phone, ½ of the heating cost (fuel oil) and in recent times offered to supply Internet to the library for no cost to the tax payer. Many library Directors have come and gone over the century of this being in affect and all it cost the Town of Winchester….Nothing! The library’s Directors pay was to be able for their Family’s to live upstairs.
In recent years the hostile takeover by the “new board of trustees” this is what they call themselves Goal seemed to be to drive away previous board members some serving for over 30 years and take over the running of the library. They have succeeded as the many resignations prove, but now are not willing to stand up and do the work they created themselves. When discussing the option of no longer compensating (free rent) the Library Director and Maintenance person Kim Gordon (are you sick of this name yet?) told the board that if they voted to do so she would be willing to run the library and mow the lawn and take care of everything, reflected in the Library minutes on or around August 2011. Soon after voting to no longer compensate the library Director, Kim Gordon became too busy to live up to her agreement and here you are folks you are being asked to use your tax dollars for this board’s lack of judgment and bad decision making.
We have been informed of a letter being submitted to both the Budget Committee and Select board on this matter, it is referred to in B.C. Minutes 10/16 2012. But it looks like the select board has ignored it and not discussed or included it in their minutes.
We are trying to get a copy of this for you to read.
$4,000 doesn’t seem like a lot but in recent years tax payers are losing their homes and struggling to pay their taxes. People are begging the town to curb cost or at the minimum keep it leveled. Now this board has been allowed to double their budget, could this be opening the door for all the other boards and departments to raise theirs also?
14 comments:
Yes there was a letter read at a Budget Committee meeting. I know the author and will see if a can get a copy for you to post, it was very interesting and informative.
Selectman Sepe motioned to have it stricken from the minutes and Elisha Jackson seconded it. Elisha is friends with Kim Gordon so you can see why she did that, But why is a selectman trying to cover this up?
I was just E-mailed a copy of the letter the only way I can post is by Cutting and pasting. it changed it a bit but it is word for word what was read to the BC
I left out the authers name ond phone #
10/16/2012
Winchester selectboard Winchester Budget committee
It has come to my attention from the Select board minutes that the Thayer library board of trustees is asking that the town of Winchester take over the responsibility or cost of maintenance of the building and grounds at the Thayer library
This is an added burden and expense to the taxpayers that I have problems with. For over 100 years the taxpayer has never been asked to finance these jobs because the Library’s Director/groundskeeper had the responsibility of doing this work. This policy is also reflected in the Thayer Library’s by-laws and trust fund. Last August, 2011 the board of trustees were discussing if they wanted to have this position at the Library in the future, during this discussion a board member asked who would run the Library and mow the grounds, etc., at this time Kim Gordon volunteered herself to take on these responsibilities. Without a doubt her statement affected how the board voted to no longer have a Library director/groundskeeper and they voted to no longer have one, actually the vote was to no longer compensate for the position. The minutes to this meeting only reflect Kim volunteering to run the library and do not mention her doing the grounds keeping and mowing etc. but she did state she would do all this. There were many witnesses to this fact including board members, members of the public. If needed I can get statements from these individuals. It should be noted that Kim Gordon wrote the minutes for that meeting.
I feel to ask the taxpayers to fund this after the board’s decision to no longer have it done for no cost to the town is wrong. Kim Gordon needs to be held responsible for her statements and actions. If the Library board of trustees does not wish to hold her to her word, then they should make some other arrangement that does not affect or include the taxpayers of Winchester.
It is time that our board members are held accountable for their actions and the way they vote.
Anonymous said...November 17, 2012 4:02 PM
If this was sent to you as a attachment in Word form or PDF
E-mail it to us and we may be able to post the original letter.
If thats ok with you and the author
Now I understand why the lawns and gardens have looked horrible all summer.
I drive by the place everyday and over the years I noticed a huge improvement, The addition of all the beautiful flower gardens and trees looked so good for a main st house like that and was changing the over all look of the village.
This summer the lawn looked like it was hacked once in awhile and the gardens were looking horrible, I couldn't understand why until reading this blog.
It seems like once a little pride starts to sneak into town something happens to scare it away again.
Assuming the lawn gets mowed once per week from May through September that comes out about $75per mowing
Select-Board Minutes 11/14/12
http://www.winchester-nh.gov/Pages/WinchesterNH_Selectminutes/I03B37D23
Well its looks like the "New Trustees" has done the exact thing that the old Trustees warned them about. Drawing to much negative attention and also trying to force tax-payers to support 2 Library's in 1 town.
Looks like the Select board want to do a study on closing Thayer Library and the way things have gone for the last few years its understandable.
The hostile takeover by the "new" trustees and the constant hand's out for tax-payer money when they cant be bothered to do fundraisers themselves has bit them in the arse.
Looks like the thoughts of the past Library director and Trustee board wasn't so bad after all.
Keep it a historical library, don't compete with Conant, don't ask taxpayers for money, and use the place for a platform for more community and hisorical events in Ashuelot. We should bring back some of the old traditions like Ashuelot Village & Children's Fund (AVCF) did with Santa's Visit to the common.
I hope Julia ferrari,Harriet Charland, Kim Gordon and Jen Bellan are proud of themselves
It only took them a few years to detroy over a hundred years of the little historic village library. Good job ladies this will look great in your resume.
I am new to this blog and have only recently read over the comments. I am confused by the issue with the Thayer Library in Ashuelot. If the 'new trustees'are mismanaging the building as it appears, why not remove the trustees rather than shut down the library?
Kinda makes sense when you look at the common denominators. Kim Gordon and Jen bellan are involved with our Planning board and that has become useless and dysfunctional and not helping our town. Julia Ferrari and Kim gordon are on the Historical District Commission together, This is a board our town does not need, Its hard to understand how we can have a few unqualified people telling tax paying home owners what they can and can not do to their homes and do you remember the 4,000 legal bill Ferrari cost us last summer because she didn't get her way over the eye soar on Main st.?
Now you have Julia and Kim serving as Trustees for Thayer with Bellan as self appointed president of friends of Thayer and all hell breaks loose, Not hard to understand why our Village Library is in danger.
I agree with the other post get rid of the people not the Village library.
Real Sad in my book, As a child i spent many hours in that library, and so haven't my kids. Last time I was in all the lovely old books with a history's worth of local names in them were all gone and there was a little gray dog running the place, Is that really what it has come down to? I hope we don't loose this piece of history our village has nothing anymore.
with what Ive read here and on the towns site looks like its just some board members we need to axe and not the library itself.
We cant let the Library be closed because of the actions of a few new board members. Lets all demand their resignations and fix this problem before its to late.
Every one in the Village should be up in arms about this, Ashuelot has lost everything over the years and this Library is the last thing our little Village has left. You need to pay attention and go to meetings more important you need to become involved and vote!
Go to Library meetings and demand these new trustees resign before its to late. We have time to put together a new board and prove to the selectman and voters that the Library can run like it used to with no burden to the town or tax payers you fust need board members who care and are not just trying to make a name for themselves..
Make your voice heard, demand Gordon, Ferrari and Charland resign before our Library is closed forever
Save our Village library must become the battle cry.
Demand the resignation of this board so we can save the village library.
As a tax payer I will not support 2library's in this town. The whole idea of duplicating services when people are struggling and losing their homes is asinine. These trustees had better find a better purpose for this place besides competing with Conant who already gets quit a bit of our tax money.
I have to ask what has happened, this place never had a single problem until the last few years?
People of the village need to get on top of this and start going to trustee meetings and find out whats really happening and why all of the problems now?
I hear there has been some talk at the last 2 select board meetings about the Trustees of Thayer, no minutes are posted yet as usual, anyone have any info on whats up?
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