Library Director Out

The tale of Library Director Ann Wirtanen is coming to an end, with Wirtanen heading to the Winchester Public Library, the Fitchburg Pride has learned. She leaves the Fitchburg Public Library Jan. 15.

It's been a tough one for Wirtanen over the last year. She was none-too-pleased by the cuts in library funding and the attendant state decertification. It only got worse when many people noted her lack of response to improve its situation itself, instead doing little more than complaining about the situation. Things got even worse in the aftermath of the ice storm. It's no secret she was displeased over the library being used as an animal shelter. It's also not much of a secret that she expressed her displeasure rather loudly.

Without a doubt, Wirtanen was defending her department, and at the end of the day her responsibility and focus is the library. But the way she went about things didn't do herself or the library any favors, and after the shelter fiasco, there was some talk her days could be numbered.

Whatever the case, she's heading out. Consider this nugget as she makes for the door:

“The Winchester Public Library is well supported by the town. They value the library and it shows,” said Wirtanen.

Ugh

I don't really know what else to say today.

Let's start with the fact that today is the first day of the new Fiscal Year. Or, the day when all the horrible things in the budget start to take effect. Goodbye police officers and firefighters. The library cuts are in effect. And so on.

If that wasn't bad enough, there's a bunch of little financial news today, none of it good. The state is going to review changes, which isn't horrible news, but a reminder that times are bad.

The library wants the city to pay back a loan the city used to fix the library elevator. There might be an argument to make here that this was more an accounting maneuver than a loan, and the library did benefit from the loan, but I'm not sure it's a compelling argument. And now, of course, the library wants its money back. Can't say I blame them, but at some point this bickering needs to get resolved.

A new audit report discovers $8,000 found in a desk drawer. I don't whether to get supremely upset, or merely shake my head in quiet, shocked, disapproval. I guess it's more head-shaking, but good lord. Why can't that be my desk drawer?

Finally, someone was shot in the Parkhill Park yesterday afternoon. It's particularly troubling in that one of the Save Fitchburg tots was at the splash park during that time. From reports from her friend's mom, there was some confusion if there were even shots fired, which reinforces the feeling that the incident was far removed from the splash park, but there are a bunch of kids at that splash park every day, and this incident is disconcerting for every parent who has a kid that goes there. The SF clan goes there rarely, but it will do so probably only after second thoughts at this point.

Let's try to end on a high note: It looks like Sal's Pizza is opening any day now over near Twin Cities. Can't come soon enough. If you missed the news last month, Sal's Pizza is most tasty, and we'll be enjoying some tasty Sal's as soon as we can.

The Library

OK, I'm going to write about the budget and the library for a little bit today. It's probably not going to seem this way when it's all said and done (yes, I do go into these ramblings with a semi-plan), but I think it's very unfortunate the library budget was cut so steeply, and I'm very open to considering options (that's a funky way of saying, yeah, I'd probably vote for a library override today).

While I don't cling to the emotional "great center of knowledge" as tightly as hard-core library folks, I will say that there's some amount of civic pride invested in the library. No way around it: It's embarrassing to say the city doesn't have a library that's open full-time, or even state accredited (although the two kind of go hand-in-hand). An active, vibrant library is a symbol of, well, an active and vibrant community.

We should be doing better by the library, but we aren't. And some folks would say we can't. Some will say we can. But the situation is pretty complex, when you think about it.

It's still considered gospel in these parts that an override might as well be stamped "DOA" on the ballot. So that means when going into the budget process this year, the mayor and City Council were in cut mode, not "let's try to find areas that might be override-palatable."

Big cuts are hard to come by. The schools are pretty much off-limits, due to state mandates, minimum funding standards, and the huge proportion of state funding that goes to the schools. That, and the schools should be priority number one for the city (yes, that's my priority, and I don't want to have this fight again. And if you're getting ready to type the "too many administrators in schools" arguement, please, finally, come with titles that can go, and the state would allow cut).

The next biggest departments are police and fire. We've seen in the last two months how much of a premium the City Council puts on those departments. Would Wong have been able to get a big through in either of those departments? Negative. Next is DPW, probably. People already hate the condition of the roads. 'Nuff said.

In some ways, making a big cut in the library is a logical -- although difficult -- idea. While there has been much tsk-tsking and what-not, note the relative lack of outrage from the City Council. They're on board with this. This thing is falling into the "fact of life" category, unfortunately.

Importantly, this isn't a short-time issue. It seems unlikely -- impossible? -- that the library is suddenly going to get a $800,000 boost in next year's budget. It's best chance of full funding if an override. And while it's possible, I wouldn't be betting the homestead on folks bucking up via an override. Maybe things will be better in six months or so, but if it was today, I wouldn't see it happening.

Now, all that said, there's been some, eh, fuzziness on the part of the library fandom. For starters, inevitably, someone says something like "It's horrible the library is closing. We're losing such a vital resource." That's not true. The library is staying open, just not seven days a week. Is it inconvenient? You bet. Is it lock the doors and try to read e-books? Nope.

The biggest issue here is the loss of inter-library loaning. If the FPL doesn't have a book, it's off to amazon with you, because most local libraries aren't going to give it to you (Leominster's vote is pending, but that sounds like an iffy situation for Fitchburg). That's really the biggest problem here.

I'd also question the decisions the library leadership has made in terms of hours. If inter-library loaning is issue number one, access is number two (although the two might be flip-flopped). Tuesday-Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., might be the worst possible times for most people to get to the library. How about noon to 8 p.m. one day? Even better, why not go Thursday, noon to 8, Friday, 9 to 5, and Saturday, oh, 10 to 4. It might be a little crowded in the evening and on Saturday, but isn't that a good problem? Why can't this happen? There might be a reason, but I don't know it.

Next week, the library goes to its new hours. As these things often do, the issue will probably die down. Regular library-goers will notice the change, but most people won't. The issue will come back in the winter or spring, as override talks get going again. For library lovers, the bitterness of the situation needs to get swallowed, and it's time to put on a charm offensive and convince the city that the library is a worthy target of the city's first override approval, or some other plan needs to be cobbled together. The hand-wringing must end and the work must start, or the only way to get to the library will be to go during lunch or take the morning off to get there.

UPDATE, Thursday, 4:03 p.m. -- The Telegram has a story on the library today. I refer to it for two reasons. First, the library hours will be noon to 7 p.m., which I didn't know when I wrote yesterday. I'm an idiot. Second, it doesn't take long in the story for someone to say the changes will "shutter" the library. Why does this get said so often. It's not being shuttered. It's being reduced. Jeez. The truth is bad enough.

A Day at the Library

The budget situation at the Fitchburg Public Library is pretty well-known at this point. But what happens throughout the day at the library? We've sent Pride reporter Karen Mann down to the FPL to spend the day and observe an average day at the library. She'll be writing a story for next Friday's paper, but she'll be filing updates throughout the day over at the Fitchburg Pride website. So, check it out randomly during the day when you get a chance.

Note: If you've subscribed to the Fitchburg Pride e-mail update list (and if you haven't, a tsk-tsk dear reader), you've gotten an update that Karen has started posting. I promise we won't be sending e-mails every time she updates. You're aware of the situation, and I'm not going to harass you about it.

Your Tuesday Budget Update

If there's a quiet day this week, this is going to be the day.

On the update front: The library is getting $88,000 to keep the youth library open. Andy Roy says the Coolidge Park pool will likely close, which is a bummer, because that pool does a brisk business.

Tonight, the City Council meets, with the expectation that it will approve Mayor Lisa Wong's reorganization plan. Councilors said last week they want to approve it, but just wanted to read the final draft after amendments before OKing the plan. Based on their comments last week, if they were to pull the carpet out from under her tonight, that would be rather uncool, and probably lead to some chaos the next few days as Wong reshaped the budget. But all signs point to passage, so it should be anti-climatic. See? I told you today would be relatively quiet.

Tomorrow, though, things start to get interesting. The trash fee public hearing is tomorrow night at the library (of all places). There's a lot of negative feedback on the trash fee, and folks who don't normally pay attention to these kinds of things are pretty upset about the whole deal. That should be an interesting one. And then Thursday, of course, the budget is rolled out in all its glory.

So, to recap: Tonight, reorg. Tomorrow, trash fee. Thursday, the whole thing.

By the way, Leominster Mayor Dean Mazzarella said yesterday he's cutting $4.9 million out of the city's budget next year. Mazzarella said he's laying off one person and making cuts throughout city departments. It's no surprise that Leominster is in strong enough shape that it can limit layoffs, but it is interesting to note the city is facing a similar budget gap to Fitchburg. Certainly Fitchburg is in tougher shape, but it shows that the larger revenue/cost inflation problem is universal.

Budget Questions

Well, library questions, really. But it's all the same at this point.

If you haven't heard, the library trustees voted late this week to go with a $300,000 budget for next year, a cut of $800,000. This leads to the library being open three days a week.

While Mayor Lisa Wong has talked about not liking such a big cut, she hasn't talked about why the library was delivered such a big blow (nearly 75 percent. Holy cow). (Self-beating: I haven't talked to Wong in a week. Shame on me.) More big hits are coming, you have to think, and Wong is going to have to justify her thinking, or at least explain her decisions as this moves on. Considering how draconian some of these cuts are going to be, she's going to have to. She doesn't have to explain the situation, but she does have to explain some this. Or she's going to be hung worse than she already is.

Now, while we're asking questions, a story in today's Telegram says Wong wants the library to make sure the youth library stays open. Initially, it was going to be shuttered. In the story, the library director says it will cost $75,000 to staff the youth library at 22.5 hours a week. That's 1170 hours a year. That comes out to over $64 an hour. How many people are working back there? If it's three, that's pretty good coin for a part-time job. Sign me up. If it's less than three, holy cow. If it's more than three, is that really necessary? How many people are needed back there at one time? I've been there randomly over the last few years, and I've seen at most three families at once back there (but I haven't been for a story hour or whatnot). Which leads me to my final question: Considering what's going on in the city, isn't there a way to keep the youth library open for less than $75k/year?

Let the week of questions of begin.... now.

Last-Minute Library Spinning

The City Council, if you haven't heard, decide what to do with library funding tonight, and at least two city councilors are discussing the issue somewhat publicly in the last few hours.

I'm guessing most folks are already reading the Fitchburg Hometown e-mail string (if you're not the list, you might want to be. It's a worthy inbox filler), but if you haven't, here goes:

Councilor Ted DeSalvatore chimed in this morning (9:19 a.m. according to Outlook) with the following:

To all concerned,
The library budget/funding information is not
complete.

City Council has no intension of hurting the library in
any way. Our job is to balance the City Budget. We have taken the initiative to
reduce all pay raises to the 2007 mark throughout the city in hopes to recoup a
$760,000 deficit. Doing that, (according to the director of the Fitchburg Public
Library), will reduce the overall monies to a level that would cause the loss of
certification, so our recommendation to the mayor would be to place the
difference into the heating oil account or some other place within that
department. This is in the name of fairness. We will not allow it to return to
pay raises, and I believe we will protest any additional areas, that do not
serve the City’s immediate needs but in the end, the final decision will be in
the Mayor’s lap.

Council can only reduce, eliminate, recommend and
reject, we cannot add anything to the budget. Therefore, with that said, once
council finishes cutting, the rest of the math is up to the Mayor. I would
suggest, in light of all the efforts to encourage City Council to keep the
funding, the same effort be extended to the mayor in seeing to it that the
necessary monies are reallocated to the heating oil or like line items, keeping
the funding level where it needs to be, and retaining the certification we all
desire.

I hope that I have stated this clearly enough, however if
you should have any further questions, please feel free to contact me
directly.

I should add, this is my personal perspective, and
believe most councilors feel the same way, however, any councilors that feel
they have a different take on this, should be encouraged to respond with their
thoughts as well.

Thank you,
Ted

City
Councillor
Ted E. DeSalvatore
Tel (978) 343-4174
Cell(978)
502-9432
vincit qui se vincit

This afternoon (4:42 according to Outlook), Dean Tran chimed in with the following:

Hello,
Ward 4 Councilor DeSalvatore's views are solely his own. I would ask
any
and all concern residents to contact each individual city councilors
and
discuss the matter. Furthermore, the City Council President, Jody
Joseph,
is the only authorized individual to speak on behalf of the City
Council as
a whole.


Sincerely,
Dean A.
Tran
City Councilor
at-large
http://www.ci.fitchburg.ma.us
http://www.deantran.net

So, there you go. Not sure what will happen, exactly, tonight, but the council seems to be taking this pretty seriously.

By the way, not sure if there are any Latin scholars in the room, but according to a quick google search, "vincit qui se vincit," which DeSalvatore uses to sign his e-mails, translates to "He conquers who conquers himself." So there you go.

At Least We Have the Red Raiders

If you missed the story in the Globe on Saturday, after a $3 million override failed in Stoneham, officials eliminated the entire high school athletic department, which costs roughly $750,000 a year.

What does this have to do with Fitchburg? Well, not much. But...

The Stoneham situation is another reminder that things are tough all over around the state. Communities are looking at overrides to help fill in the gaps, and when it doesn't happen they are resorting to some fairly Draconian cuts. Stoneham sports = Fitchburg Library?

I'm not a big fan of the "we're cutting all sports" move. It stinks of politics and municipal extortion. The message is, give us money or kid won't run track this year. Instead, I think Fitchburg is doing the proper and appropriate thing by trying to maintain at least parts of everything. That might change tonight with the library. At least one councilor thinks the council might vote to close the library tonight. That councilor doesn't agree with that idea, but thinks it might happen. 'Nough said on that.

Finally, as usual, you hear folks around the city mention receivership. Some think it's a good idea, some think it's merely destiny based on the city's financial condition. While that condition isn't very good, it's not receivership level. When the city ends the year millions of dollars in debt, or is making cuts triple or quadruple what is making now, then we'll talk about it. But there's a big difference between the current situations in Fitchburg and Stoneham and receivership. Just getting that out there.

Finally, a couple of sports matters while I have your attention....

The Celtics seem to be getting closer to wanting to draft Yi Jianlian on Thursday night. Combine the mock drafts, rumor mill and this Globe feature, and you have wonder if this is their guy.

In short, ugh. First, they should be trading this pick for a veteran. Not sure the AK-47 rumor floated by Peter May yesterday does the trick, but it's close. I just can't get excited about Kirilenko. Anyone?

If they don't trade the pick, Paul Pierce is likely to go nuts. Use the pick on Jianlian -- who no one knows and is considered a "prospect" -- and you might as well put Pierce in solitary, so as not to infect the rest of the inmates.

But with Garnett not wanting to come here, and the Celtics, ahem, braintrust deathly afraid to trade young talent lest they become very good somewhere else (the ghosts of Chauncey Billups and Joe Johnson live), you can count on the Cs hanging on to the pick Thursday night. Grrrrrrr.

We talked a few months ago about the Sox's hot start, and holding off the Yankees. Without going into the archives, I remember Rupert K saying the Sox would be caught. We went to the numbers to figure out how tough it would be for the Yanks to make up the ground. After this brutal week for the Yankees, I figured it was time for an update:

The Red Sox are 48-26. We figured all along their good for about 95 wins. They need to go 47-41 the rest of the way to get to that mark. And yes, we're ruling out the rest of the division, which doesn't have the horses for a run. The Sox have a few problems -- they can't hit sometimes, the middle relief is due for a rough stretch one of these days, and they're starting pitching has gotten nicked up. But, if you believe Beckett has had his DL stretch, and that Schilling is halfway through his, how can you not think the Sox are going to win at least 95 games this year? Even if Schilling is out for a while, 95 seems a minimal goal.

So...

The Yankees are 36-37. Yup, back under .500. Unbelieveable. The Yankees would have to go 59-30 the rest of the way to get to 95 wins. 59-30. Basically, they'd have to win every series the rest of the way. Can they do it? Well, yeah, I guess. They certainly had a nice two-week stretch there a few weeks ago. But that's an awfully, awfully, tough task. And that's assuming the Sox only go 47-41 the rest of the way.

To sum this all up: I made plans to be away the weekend of Sept. 15-17, forgetting I have tickets for the Sox-Yanks game on the 15th. At this point, I'm confident I can be away and not miss anything. I don't think things will change over the next two-and-a-half months.

A Matter of Investment

Plenty of people have written and talked about -- and will write and talk about -- how important it is to preserve funding for the library to maintain state certification and kick an important community asset to the curb.

If you've missed it, the City Council -- saying it's just like any other department -- is considering cuts to the library budget that would cause the library to lose state certification. That would mean a loss of about $73,000 in state aid, and that the library would essentially become a self-contained unit. Your Fitchburg library card would be no good at other area libraries, for example.

All of those reasons are good ones to protect the library's budget from the $755 in cuts that would lose certification. However, there's a financial argument that makes the most sense.

All departments, despite some councilors' views, are not equal. Some have -- or at least should -- have more importance, and the city should do what it can to protect those departments. Schools should be the ultimate priority, with public safety next, as far as I'm concerned. Add in the intricacies of state law -- like minimum education funding and that kind of thing, and all departments clearly aren't the same.

Beyond the emotional embarassment of having a subpar library through more cuts is the fact that making the cuts would result in a loss of $73,000 in state aid. The library budget has already been cut just short of $49,000 from 2007 to 2008. Why not hold the line and maintain that $73,000? It's a wise investment of city money at this point.

Let's say the council wanted to cut another $20,000 out of the library budget. Keeping that $20,000 would realize $73,000 -- or over a 3:1 return on the money. Cutting that $20,000 is really like cutting $93,000, if you want to see it a different way.

In short, it makes no financial sense to cut the library any more than $754. It's an investment that will not only maintain some dignity for the library, but also is a smart use of the city's money. And considering how scarce it is, using it wisely is of utmost importance.

Having It Both Ways

More on this during the week, but Mayor Dan Mylott's approach to the council's salary freeze for DPW workers doesn't make much sense.

Last week, after the council turned down the trash fee to create a need to slash another $760,000 out of the budget, Mylott said he wouldn't make any more cuts, and it would be up to the council to make the cuts.

So the council cut raises for DPW employees yesterday. Councilors say the contract wasn't finished, and there's no money. Mylott said he'd challenge the cuts and was critical of the move.

He can't have it both ways. If you're going to pass on making your own cuts, and demand the council do it, you can't really be too critical of the cuts, can you? For those who think Mylott is playing politics with the budget, and trying to shift blame on the council, here's Example Number 1.

Also, the council cut Robert Pontbriand, the mayor's assistant yesterday. Mylott was steamed that the council made the move after Mylott and Pontbriand left the meeting. If that's the case, that's a pretty uncool move by the council. Don't nail a guy behind his back. However, it seems like a place Mylott should have considered cutting himself. In his words, the city is facing an "unprecedented fiscal crisis." Shouldn't have shown some leadership and taken a big hit in his office?

More budget stuff this week. More on the horrific Library situation here before Wednesday's meeting. Let the games continue.