MILFORD — On Sunday February 28 the Friends of the Children’s Room (FCR) of Pike County Public Library (PCPL) sponsored a “Winter Wonderland” for elementary school aged students at the First Presbyterian Church of Milford.
The FCR couldn’t have planned a more perfect weekend for a winter weather themed program. After days of what seemed like non-stop snowfall and three consecutive days of school being closed, kids couldn’t wait to get out of the house and have some fun! Event organizers joked that when they first planned the event they considered including outdoor snow play but worried that there might not be any on the ground!
While there was plenty of snow on the ground, the kids did stay inside and made some “snow” of their own! Arts and crafts activities included: paper snowflakes, snowflake ornaments, and edible snowmen. The children also listened to stories about snowmen and penguins, played “Snowman Says,” (like Simon Says) and enjoyed a snack of cookies and hot chocolate.
The FCR would like to thank the First Presbyterian Church of Milford for donating the use of their facility for this event.
For more information about PCPL, visit www.pcpl.org or call 570-296-8211. For more information about the Friends of the Children’s Room, email pcplfcr@gmail.com.
MILFORD – Designed for the youngest library users and their parents or caregivers, Pike County Public Library’s lapsit programs offer children from birth through two years of age and their adult a chance to share time together at the library. During the 30 minute programs, our youngest children and their grownups will be exposed to language, books, and playful activities in a positive and supportive atmosphere. Lapsit programs are a great way to introduce children to the library, to begin a lifetime of regular library visits, and to help children develop into lifelong library users.
Lapsit programs will be held on Tuesdays, April 13 through June 1, from 10:15 to 10:45 a.m. at the Milford branch of PCPL. We ask that you leave food and beverages at home.
Registration is required in person or by phone in Milford beginning March 9 after 11 a.m. Call (570) 296-8211 with any questions.
LACKAWAXEN — Due to reduced funding to libraries in 2010, please note the following change for Pike County Public Library. The Lackawaxen Township Branch will now be open on Tuesdays and Fridays from 2 to 7p.m., and closed every other day of the week.
We hope you will continue to utilize this branch and all the services it has to offer. Please call (570)685-3100 to leave a message any day/time of the week to renew items. The book drop will still be available for you to drop off your items on days when the branch is closed. Please call PCPL’s Administrative Offices in Milford at (570) 296-8211 if you have any questions.
Jen Greco, public services assistant at the Pike County Library; Marcia Guberman, vice president at The Dime Bank and Ellen Schaffner.
MILFORD-The Dime Bank donated $5,000 to the Pike County Public Library through Pennsylvania’s Educational Improvement Tax Credit Program. Library Director Ellen Schaffner stated, “We are so grateful to The Dime Bank for their assistance. We are exploring several different avenues to use the funds to bring educational resources to the students in Pike County.”
The Dime Bank has been helping the residents of Wayne and Pike counties in Pennsylvania and Sullivan County, New York meet their financial needs since 1905. With offices currently in Honesdale, Downtown Hawley, Damascus, Greentown, Dingmans Ferry, the lake region of Hawley, the bank offers a full array of financial services and solutions ranging from traditional products to electronic banking and trust and investment services. Community banking yields community benefits. For more information on The Dime Bank, visit www.thedimebank.com.
MILFORD – The weather outside may be frightful, but the stories we’ll be reading are so delightful! Children in Grades Kindergarten through fifth grades are invited to celebrate winter with the Friends of the Children’s Room (FCR) of Pike County Public Library (PCPL.)
On Sunday February 28, the FCR will sponsor a “Winter Wonderland” at the First Presbyterian Church of Milford, 300 Broad Street, Milford. This event begins at 3 p.m. and concludes at 4:30 p.m. Children will chill out listening to some wintry stories, make cool crafts, play games, and enjoy a snack that will warm everyone up.
Registration for this event is required and is going on now at the Milford Branch of PCPL or by calling (570) 296-8211.
For more information about PCPL, visit www.pcpl.org.
Former Pike County Library Board Member Bill Griffin reads a letter, signed by four other former board members, at Wednesday’s Pike County Board of Commissioners meeting. (Photo by Jim Davis)
By Jim Davis
MILFORD — A group of former members of the Pike County Public Library’s board of directors attended Wednesday’s Pike County Commissioners meeting and read a letter addressed to commissioners urging them to proceed in their efforts to restructure the current board of directors.
The letter, signed by former library board members Bill Griffin, Betty Hague, Charlotte Zulick, Rob Rohner, and Gayle Schuster, offers several points of opinion about why the current board should be replaced, including:
An inability to raise sufficient funds for operations in the past four years.
Poor judgment in the handling of finances resulting in the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Poor judgment from the beginning by focusing solely on an $8.5 million design and ignoring a responsibility to the entire county library system.
Demonstrating a difficulty in maintaining positive relationships with public officials or with any individuals who disagree with them.
Paying out excessive amounts for public relations and lawyers on a campaign for a million dollar referendum.
The commissioners are in the midst of working on an agreement with the library board for a plan for moving forward; the two sides are working under a self-imposed deadline of January 29, with the library’s annual county appropriation at stake. The commissioners have asked for more municipal representation on the library board and for changes in the bylaws that govern the board.
The two sides are next scheduled to meet on January 25 at 10 a.m. in the Commissioner’s meeting room at the County Administration Building.
MILFORD — At a meeting held on the morning of New Year’s Eve, the Pike County Library board offered the county commissioners a plan for the future.
Last November, a referendum initiated by the board calling for a one mill countywide tax was soundly defeated by voters. The commissioners have attempted to use the referendum to effect change on the library board, holding the library’s annual appropriation in abeyance until concerns about the library board expressed by voters and taxpayers are addressed. These concerns include, chiefly, the library’s bylaws and the very composition of the library board.
As it is presently constituted, the library board consists of nine members. Two of these are appointed by the commissioners (though the commissioners currently have only one appointment, Charles Eible, serving on the library board; their other appointment, David Farrington, resigned his post after the election and has not yet been replaced). The Milford Community House also appoints a member of the board, at the moment Centa Quinn is serving in that capacity. The library’s bylaws state that the appointment by the Community House will cease at such a time that the library moves from the Community House, the current home of the Milford Branch.
The remaining six appointments are made by the board itself. These are essentially at-large appointments. Under the current bylaws, these members can be voted off the board by a simple majority vote. The commissioners have sought a greater municipal representation on the board.
The proposal made by the library board at last Thursday’s meeting called for an immediate additional appointment by commissioners. In addition, at such a time as the library moved from the Community House, the appointment made by the Community House would become a commissioner’s appointment. The library has terminated plans for an $8.5 million design for a new Milford Headquarters, but is currently seeking other alternatives for a new Milford Branch, most notably in the Biondo Building at 221 Broad Street.
The library board also proposed reworking their bylaws in such a way as to make the new appointment scheme viable; to institute a code of conduct provision among board members; and to allow for board member removal with cause, which is more than the bylaws currently require for removal of board members.
The commissioners agreed to consider the proposition, and asked that the library provide them with a marked up copy of the bylaws that would reflect the revisions. The two sides are working under a self-imposed deadline of Jan 29.
During the meeting, the library board also sought assurances from the county that, in the event that the board took action to relocate the Milford Branch, there would be additional money available to help with the operating expenses and upkeep that would be associated with the new branch. Currently, the Community House maintains the physical premises of the library, but that would change if the library were to move from the Community House.
“You’re asking us to look into a crystal ball,” said Commissioner Chairman Rich Caridi, noting that if the county were to continue to fund at current levels, they were doing better than the state, which slashed library funding for 2010.
“I don’t see the commissioners increasing funding for 2010,” added Commissioner Karl Wagner. “In the future, when the economy improves, if the tax base increases, who knows…if you’re asking for a good faith effort to discuss it, we could commit to that, but we can’t promise any money at this point.”
Commissioner Harry Forbes noted that he felt there were a number of other issues to resolve before they could consider increased funding in the future.
MILFORD — Pike County Public Library Board President Maleyne Syracuse announced on Tuesday morning that the library has terminated their contract with architect Frederic Schwartz. Schwartz designed the structure that caused so much controversy over the past several years, and in particular during the run-up to the library tax referendum earlier this month.
Critics of the design called it extravagant and overly expensive, while proponents lauded its aesthetic appeal and the beneficial effects it would have on Milford and Pike County. According to Syracuse, the total cost of the library’s engagement with Schwartz was about $186,000, and was paid from the $1 million bequest donated by Dorothy Warner.
When asked about the library’s plans for the future, Syracuse said that several options were still being considered. “The Community House [the library’s current Milford headquarters] is in bad shape,” Syracuse acknowledged. “We will at some point need a new building,” she continued, “and we have a bunch of money that has to be used in Milford.” The latter statement refers to the Warner gift, as well as, presumably, to a state grant funded by gaming money that, according to a statement made by library board member Rebecca Lindsey at a meeting between the board and the county commissioners earlier this month, has to be used in the development of a downtown area.
Syracuse acknowledged that the library could seek to develop the Harford Street property which they already own (and which was the proposed site of the now-defunct Schwartz design) more affordably, or that they could seek other options within Milford. She also alluded to the fact that they could do nothing at all, which would forfeit much of the money.
A statement on the library’s website reads as follows:
“In the wake of the November 3 referendum vote, the Pike County Public Library has terminated its contract with Frederic Schwartz Architects for architectural services for a new library system headquarters building to be constructed at 221 E. Harford. St. The design for that building was approved by the Milford Borough Council in June.
The PCPL owns the East Harford street site, and does not own the Community House building where the Milford branch library is now located. The Community House building is too small to serve as a library, is not ADA compliant, and is in poor repair. The PCPL is therefore in the process of analyzing a range of alternatives that would make it possible to continue to provide adequate library services in Milford, at a lower cost for construction and operation than the planned Frederick Schwartz building. In considering the possibilities, the PCPL is conscious that many private donations, as well as state grants worth $2 million, were dedicated specifically for the Schwartz design. It may or may not be possible to obtain permission from the donors and grantors to use any part of these donations and grants for any other library building in Milford. In addition, the PCPL will forfeit almost $1 million from the Dorothy Warner gift if that gift is not used in the very near future for a new Milford library. There has been no decision yet with respect to what action, if any, to take.
In addition, the PCPL is considering suggestions relating to board governance issues from state and local officials. No final decision has been reached.”
MILFORD — The Pike County Public Library spent over $30,000 in promotion of the recently defeated library tax referendum, according to papers filed with the Pike County Board of Elections.
The Independent Expenditure Report, filed on October 29th, itemizes $30,118.64 in expenditures, including: $18,928.31 in fees to Heron’s Eye Communications for communications consulting; $5,284.57 in costs associated with direct mailing; $4,175.32 to administrative assistant Kathleen Brannon; and $1,730.44 for advertising in various media outlets and for the production of campaign materials (this total includes $166 for an ad in the Pike County Press).
According to Krista Gromalski, president of Heron’s Eye Communications, that company had a contracted campaign fee of $13,000. The figure listed in the expense report includes expenses such as graphic design, for which Heron’s Eye hired a local independent sub-contractor, and items submitted to the Pike County Public Library for reimbursement such as postage and promotional materials. Heron’s Eye Communications also contributed $8,660 in in-kind services to the Pike County Public Library during the campaign.
As part of their 2009 budget, the library had allocated $55,000 in “non-recurring items relating to library tax referendum”.
Over at the Pike County Library, things have pretty much gotten back to normal.
“The patrons here were either for it or against it,” said library director Ellen Schaffner. “Actually, right now, we’re just doing our work here…we’re working on helping people get the books and other materials that they want.”
The post-election pace of that work has picked up, though, as Schaffner, who now has a clearer picture of what the library’s finances for 2010 will look like, is currently working on next year’s budget.
She noted that she had already cut $50,000 out of the 2009 budget, so there is not much else to cut this year.
For next year, the state contribution to the library has gone down by almost $50,000, and the county’s annual appropriation, which had been $200,000 for the last several years, is still up in the air, as are appropriations from Pike municipalities.
In adopting a new budget, the library board will consider various options before making final decisions on what will be cut and how funding will be allocated.
MILFORD — On Sunday February 28 the Friends of the Children’s Room (FCR) of Pike County Public Library (PCPL) sponsored a “Winter Wonderland” for elementary school aged students at the First Presbyterian Church of Milford.
