GILMANTON, N.H. (AP) – Gilmanton will remain the only town in New Hampshire without a year-round library after voters rejected spending $75,000 to hire a part-time librarian and assistant.
The town has a new library that was built from donated goods, money and labor, but it needs more money for staff in order to open. Those who voted against the request Saturday said they felt misled by library campaigners who pledged to do it all without using town funds .
Library a NO-GO
Too bad… the people spoke and clearly said NO LIBRARY. The goons did not listen.
So now, they need volunteers to staff it.
TOO BAD.
Actually
The people also spoke when a significant poll of them indicated that 94 percent of them wanted a library, but as usual, didnt actually want to pay for it. Not unusual.
what goes around comes around
You can’t treat your fellow community members like trash and then expect to be showered with good graces. You reap what you sow.
The group that built the library
pledged to BUILD it without town funds, but in fact did not pledge to RUN it without town funds. That was really rather very clear when the organization was established.
The library was build with contribution from 600 of the towns households (pretty much more than half of them)
It was also never stated in any of the minutes of the meetings of the organization, nor in its charter, nor in any report or document of the organization itself that it would not ask for government funds to run the library. The only thing they asserted they would do is build the place and stock it. Not staff it.
The new “curse’
The GYRLA had a single purpose goal, which was to build the library with private funds and fund its operation with an endowment. That single purpose goal, the only one consistently communicated throughout the years, is what they – DID SAY – to recruit volunteers, solicit moneys and “motivate” the town ….. GYRLA, Please stop living in denial. You goofed. Admit it. Apologize to the town, and move on. That project will be cursed until you do.
Their GOAL
Yes – they have consistently communicated their goal was to build and fund the library with private funds.
Many nonprofit organizations have goals – the #1 goal of the World Health Organization is to eradicate poverty and hunger.
What you fail to recognize is that GOAL does not mean PROMISE.
ON GOALS …..
Who said anything about a promise. Were talking about a communicated set of goals and objectives designed to appeal to local fundraisers and donors that would motivate them to specific actions. In this case: parting with their money and time. To say that there are never times when communicated goals hold a certain guarantee or promise is ridiculous. Even the law allows a wide safety net for people’s “reasonable rights to believe.” If the World Health Organization suddenly veered away from their “perceived” goals and objectives, I’m sure the 193 contributing nations and such private donors as the Gates and Rockefeller Foundations would have plenty to say about it.
Librariaries are Free!
I’m shocked, SHOCKED, I tell ye, that librarians wouldn’t flock to work at this new library for free. After all, in other states, you kick the librarians around, you cut their wages, you cut their staff, and still they love librarianship so much that they are willing to work for free. Why not in New Hampshire?
So, now they are finding out that without staff, a library is simply a pile of books. Purchasing books is easy. Building a library is easy. Ordering magazine subscriptions and computers is easy. But it takes a library staff to put everything in order, and to maintain it, and to make sure the resources are used wisely.
Good luck to you. If you won’t pay for the library staff, you’ll just have a big pile of books. Nicholson Baker thought librarians were crazy to get rid of newspapers because of lack of staff, budget and space. Now the several tons of newspapers he purchased are sitting unused because of a lack of staff, budget and space.
Pharoah wanted the Hebrew children to make bricks without straw. Now New Hampshire wants to build a town library without librarians. I hope Gilmanton doesn’t end up like Old Man Pharoah did.
R. Lee Hadden (These are my own opinions!)
TIME TO PAY FOR THEIR ACTIONS ….
It was proven that donors (and townspeople) were misled by the over-ambitious library folks, it seems, to loosen them from their cash. Many spoke up. Their was even one widow who had given tens of thousands, and who was devastated that they were trying to push it onto the town. They had told her they never would. Fundraisers spoke up that they were, initially, used, abused and cast aside because of jealous in-fighting within the ranks of those “good library folks.” …………. Bad all around.
It seams then that only a very small portion of that “94 percent” originally polled population (mentioned above) thought that allowing the whole town to be misled and people being treated the way they were, by the self proclaimed, “shakers and movers,” should be rewarded.
Anyway, the “good library folks” built their library more to the size of their egos than to the size of their town …. its four times the size of any other library in any other town the size of Gilmanton. Bad move. The town could never afford that blunder, anyway.
The “good library folks” made a lot of bad moves, without even blinking, thinking all the “hicks” wouldn’t notice. They did. Gilmanton has hard working, honest people, their not “goons,” and they didn’t like being lied too. The votes reflected it…………………… It was pure justice!
ok, ok, ok
Local cranks of Gilmanton: Please go fight elsewhere.
No one wants to hear all the old grudges and rumors and crap about your town.
“CRANK IT UP”
I wonder how many cranks it takes to start an engine ….. What Gilmanton has gone through is universal. You should pay attention to the “crap”, you might learn something. Anyway, it’s this web-site that carried the controversy behind the story, so it’s only natural where the story goes the controversy will follow. That’s the basic idea behind these sites. Sorry to inconvenience you.
There’s an old saying…
Every town gets the library it deserves.
We have 2 already
I think we are just fine.