Sunday, January 13, 2013

LIBRARY WANTS SMALL BUDGET BOOST - SANDY COSTS

PATCH has a great take on Saturday's budget hearing, noting the library wants a small increase. 

Do they need it to cover costs of letting people plug in and charge up during Hurricane Sandy?

See story HERE and below:


The Maplewood library became the center of the community during the widespread and prolonged power outage that followed Superstorm Sandy in late October and early November. Indeed, Lester explained, the library's visitation rate of nearly 1,000 patrons per day swelled to about 4,000 a day in the aftermath of Sandy.
The storm proved the library's value to the community once again, but also threw one shortcoming into high relief.
The library's WiFi needs to be upgraded.
Lester feels that she can obtain outside funding for the WiFi upgrade; however, Township Administrator Joseph Manning said that upgrading WiFi was a "priority" and should be added to the capital request.
Overall, Lester proposed a budget that included an allocation of $1.8 million and change from the Township — at a 1.2 percent increase from 2012. It was a request that, at least during Saturday's budget meeting, seemed to raise few eyebrows among Township Committee members as Lester enumerated the library's many services to the community and high levels of visitation and circulation


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