SANDWICH – A waiver has been granted to the Sandwich Public Library on behalf of the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.
It’s a reversed course for the Commissioners, who voted last month not to grant the waiver, adding that the library had been underfunded by the town.
Library Director Joanne Lamothe was the only person from the town to show up to the January hearing to make the town’s case.
Town Manager Bud Dunham appeared before the board recently with a detailed presentation, and Commissioners voted to approve the waiver.
“Over the last 10 years the town’s increased the appropriation to the library by 25 percent, over the same 10 years, the state has decreased their money to the library by three percent,” said Town Manager Bud Dunham. “We said that you’re trying to hold us to certain standard of effort and you yourselves have cut us instead of keeping up any standard of effort, which they agreed with.”
Not receiving the waiver could have put $23,000 in state funding and grants in jeopardy, but Dunham said it’s only a fraction of what they put into their libraries.
“The money we get from the state is less than two percent of our total library appropriation,” said Dunham. “It’s a really small part of what we do, so they appreciated that we stepped to the plate in Sandwich and fund our libraries appropriately.”
By JUSTIN SAUNDERS, CapeCod.com Newscenter
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