Huntington Public Library Budget Vote Today! Tuesday, April 8, 2014

• Elimination of Friday evening service hours and extension of Summer Sunday closures from May to October 

• Demolition of the front desk to make self-checkout kiosks

• Dedicating highly-educated staff to sit at a cafe table and “greet” patrons as they walk through the  entrance and direct patrons to use self-checkout 

• Demolition of the front bookshelf that showcased the new materials in the library  

• Pulling the copier machines from a dedicated room to sit out in the middle of the floor  creating an unsightly mess 

I don’t like these changes either! I have been fighting for the past year to have service restored and to tell the Board of Trustees that the people of Huntington are not happy with what has happened to our library. It hasn’t been easy! The current Board are all fine people, but they have rubber stamped these changes. Someone needs to represent the people of Huntington and say NO to these ridiculous changes that are ruining our library. That is why I am running for Trustee. I promise I will continue to fight for the people of Huntington!  The thing I am most concerned with now is the FUTURE of the library...   

Do you know that the proposed HPL budget for 2014-2015 includes an expenditure of $227,000. for a new RFID (radio-frequency) system to scan your books automatically, and has the capability of scanning your library card inside your wallet or purse as you walk through the door? 

This proposal has been quietly put forward at the same time that the Board has decided to conditionally restore some Friday evenings to the service schedule and presented an amazingly low budget increase (.05%). Who could resist that? Beware of this trojan horse. The reason we can afford it this year is the fact that HPL offered early retirement to many long time staffers and have realized a substantial decrease in payroll expenditure. What happens next year when there’s no one left to retire to balance the budget? 
Vote for Pat McKenna-Bausch for Trustee!