Brookline Library Override Hearing Thursday Night
The Boston Globe reported this morning that four towns in Massachusetts had property tax override votes yesterday, but that three of them rejected the increases. (See 3 of 4 towns say no to override for details.)
As I mentioned back on March 14 in the post Override Vote in Brookline, my town is having an override vote next month, and now I'm getting a little worried about its prospects. It's true that things are tough for individual citizens as well as for towns, but I worry that voters are going to reject the override without having a clear understanding of what such a rejection would mean. As an elected Library Trustee, I'm particularly interested in making sure that our townspeople are fully aware of what steps the library is considering taking should the override fail.
So if you're a local citizen, please don't go into the override voted uninformed. Tomorrow (Thursday) evening the Public Library of Brookline is holding a meeting on Library Budget Cuts and the Override. The meeting starts at 7 pm and will take place at the Coolidge Corner Branch. We want to make sure the citizens of the town know what our options will be in the event the override fails. As I noted last month, the list of possibilities includes cutting back on evening hours, closing the Coolidge Corner branch on Sundays, scaling back on children's programs, and eliminating the book discussion groups. Many other options will be presented at the meeting.
So please consider attending. And let me apologize in advance for my own absence from that meeting; I'm attending a training session for my job and so can't be there myself. Don't take my lack of presence as a lack of support; I'd rather not spend the monthly Trustees meeting in May figuring out what goes on the chopping block.
As I mentioned back on March 14 in the post Override Vote in Brookline, my town is having an override vote next month, and now I'm getting a little worried about its prospects. It's true that things are tough for individual citizens as well as for towns, but I worry that voters are going to reject the override without having a clear understanding of what such a rejection would mean. As an elected Library Trustee, I'm particularly interested in making sure that our townspeople are fully aware of what steps the library is considering taking should the override fail.
So if you're a local citizen, please don't go into the override voted uninformed. Tomorrow (Thursday) evening the Public Library of Brookline is holding a meeting on Library Budget Cuts and the Override. The meeting starts at 7 pm and will take place at the Coolidge Corner Branch. We want to make sure the citizens of the town know what our options will be in the event the override fails. As I noted last month, the list of possibilities includes cutting back on evening hours, closing the Coolidge Corner branch on Sundays, scaling back on children's programs, and eliminating the book discussion groups. Many other options will be presented at the meeting.
So please consider attending. And let me apologize in advance for my own absence from that meeting; I'm attending a training session for my job and so can't be there myself. Don't take my lack of presence as a lack of support; I'd rather not spend the monthly Trustees meeting in May figuring out what goes on the chopping block.
What's really offensive? Callahan keeps pronouncing Brookline as Brooklyn. Dennis is getting tired of correcting him. :)
It was framed as a classic public versus private sector comparison. At least two prominent sports personalities were apparently let go due to budget cutbacks stemming from lowered ratings. D & C appeared to take for granted the override would pass and compared that to the tv stations having to let go Bob Lobel. It appears Jackie MacMullan may be leaving as well. My opinion is D & C took the news rather personally.
I believe they also felt the library was currently over-staffed. They really mocked the concern about cutting back the part-timers hours, in a "poor baby" sort of way. Considering that's how
They also made comments on how if they really liked a book, they'd just buy it from a bookstore. The implication being they'd only use the library to skim through lousy books in the library proper and never even check books out from there,
They also derided PBS, and the apparently large, local PBS office building.
There was a lot more, but after two hours, I'd heard enough.
I guess between the Red Sox winning their "second" opening day, the Celtics also winning and various Bruins and Patriots news, they couldn't find something sports related to talk about on a sports radio show. Yes, they're format is a little sports, a little politics, a little entertainment news, but since when have they ever cared about Brookline? It's not Federal politics, State Politics, or even City of Boston politics. What do they care? They don't even live or work there. WEEI transmits from Needham; the show is produced from their studios in Brighton.