PASSAIC PUBLIC LIBRARY
PASSAIC PUBLIC LIBRARY IN THE NEWS
The purpose of this page is to provide the public with a fair appraisal of the facts based on the information available. In cases where the newspaper article runs juxtaposed to the opinion of the Library Director and Board of Trustees you will see a highlighted box.
Older residents look back with love on library
Friday, May 18, 2007 |
PASSAIC -- The librarian's name suited her austere demeanor.
"Miss Steele had steel down her back," recalled Passaic resident Libbie Leavitt, Thursday. The 90-year-old retired teacher, sitting in her apartment building's library with neighbors, recalled her fear of the middle-age spinster who scolded children for any sound greater than the drop of a penny with a terse, shhhh!
But Leavitt said that despite Miss Steele's imposing demeanor -- her long dresses with high necks, blond hair pulled tightly in a bun and wire-rimmed glasses that sat low on her pointy nose -- the librarian instilled a love of reading into Leavitt's 7-year-old mind. Miss Steel is the reason she finds the city's plan to shutter the Reid Memorial Library abhorrent.
"She was very important to me because, through her, I began to love books," said Leavitt, who lives in the city's Park section. "That's why the people on the other side of town need that library," she said of residents on the city's Eastside.
Leavitt is among the retired doctors, teachers, accountants and former heads of the city who are speaking out against the Library Board of Trustees' plan to close the branch and move portions of its collection to the Boys & Girls Club of Passaic. Since the board announced plans to shutter the 104-year-old library, there's been an outpouring of public criticism.
| If you go
The Passaic Library Board of Trustees will hold a special meeting to discuss the future of the Reid Memorial Library on Sunday, at 3 p.m. at the Reid, 80 Third St. For more information contact (973) 779-0474. |
A special meeting has been called for Sunday to hear what the public has to say.
Some elderly who are in poor health or lack transportation will not be able to attend. But they want the public to know the significant contribution that the Reid library made on their lives.
City officials claim the roof needs repairing at a cost of $155,000. If you take that number and divide it by the city's more than 68,000 residents -- it comes to about $2.20 a person.
"I'll pay a few extra dollars," said resident Kenneth Lucianin Sr., who said he pays $9,000 in property taxes annually but wouldn't mind chipping in an extra few bucks. The former police director and business administrator said that although the city's primary ethnic groups might have changed, the library still serves the same purpose: Opening the doors of knowledge and opportunity to all.
"The Reid was basically my Barnes & Noble," Lucianin said, recalling how he used to pore over biographies of sports celebrities such as Yankees baseball legend Lou Gehrig.
"There were no bookstores in that day and even if there were, there were not the finances to buy books."
They were children of immigrants looking for a quiet place to do their homework, recalled Frank Warholic, 77, a retired physical education teacher. He and his three older sisters were children of Russian and Polish immigrants. His parents could speak English well but didn't have much time to help him with his homework -- he had to do it by himself and he would often end up spending afternoons writing book reports, reading scientific books such as the "Microbe Hunters" by Paul De Kruif. He went on to receive his bachelor's and master's degrees from Seton Hall University.
"You are removing a tool from a child's educational life," he said. "If they close it, they are going to have to go to Third Ward(library). How are they going to transport them and get a bus?"
Mildred Geldman, 84, said a library such as the Reid instills a sense of confidence.
"I was so proud to have my own library card," said the retired bilingual secretary. The child of Czech immigrants said the neoclassical marble building stirred a sense of self-confidence. She recalled walking up the large steps to go inside
She said children, like herself whose parents come from different parts of the world and may not have time to teach the value of an education, need the library's influence.
"If they go to the Boys and Girls Club, they are going to want to play.
"They are not going to want to get books and read and do their homework," she said. "Who's going to encourage them to read? -- something that will last them their entire lives?"
Reach Meredith Mandell at (973) 569-7100 or mandell@northjersey.com.
Fast facts
-
The 104-year-old Reid Memorial Library on Third Street houses approximately 17,000 adult volumes and 8,000 children's books, according to library Director Alan Bobowski. On an application for federal funds, library officials said the branch serves approximately 12,000 mostly Latino children on the city's Eastside.
-
On Feb. 27 the Passaic Library Board of Trustees announced at a board meeting a plan to shutter the Reid site. Library officials claim the city does not have the necessary funds to keep the branch open, citing $24,000 in annual utility costs, structural damage to the building, including a leaky roof, which would cost $155,000 to repair. Library Director Bobowski also said the upstairs meeting room is not compliant with the federal American with Disabilities Act, which mandates access be made to those with handicaps.
-
Contrary to library officials claims, the architect hired to look at the Reid in October 2005 said in March that he did not find structural damage nor did he ever submit a cost estimate for the renovations.
-
City officials have remained mum on what would happen to the building if the Reid Library closes. Both Mayor Samuel Rivera and Council President Gary Schaer have said they have no input on the board's plan to close the Reid because the board is an independent body.
-
Before proposing to shutter Reid Memorial Library, the city's Library Board of Trustees had the worst attendance record of any major city board. It held only two meetings in 2006.
-
The city has cut or flat-funded the library budget in the past three years, after Council President Schaer's plan to privatize the library sank under public resistance. This year, the city funded the library at $1.1 million, about $300,000 below the library's $1.4 million operating costs.
-
In 2005 and 2006, the city rejected the library's request for $155,000 to repair the roof, and gave only a portion of the money in Community Development Block Grant funds