Saucon Source (https://sauconsource.com/tag/funding/)
If you’re a Lower Saucon Township resident who has been unable to borrow books and other materials from the Hellertown Area Library over the last couple weeks, an announcement made by the library Monday likely made your day.
At its most recent meeting, the Southern Lehigh Public Library Board of Directors instructed its Solicitor to advise Lower Saucon Township officials that the Board is “on hold” with any activity as it relates to their joining SLPL’s service area until they meet “two basic requirements.”
The Southern Lehigh Public Library Board of Directors voted recently to accept a $50,000 donation from Lower Saucon Township, library officials said Wednesday.
Community funding issues the Hellertown Area Library has faced since the start of this year are being addressed with help from a state official.
With public safety a concern for many Hellertown residents, it is no doubt welcome news that the borough’s police department will soon receive more than $117,000 for the purchase of new vehicles and equipment.
Jayne Shinko says the Hellertown Area Library should “plan a future without Lower Saucon,” and that Borough Council should also demand an audit and reimbursement of borough funds that have been used to subsidize library services for township residents in recent months.
Letter writers Mary and Bruce Dawson of Lower Saucon Township write: “It is inexplicable that the (Hellertown Area) library was not even on this month’s council meeting agenda when so many Lower Saucon Township residents are deeply concerned about continuing library services.”
Letter-writer Laura Ray of Lower Saucon Township says a modest endowment the Hellertown Area Library has been able to build over the past five years doesn’t mean that the library should be expected to “operate in the red and be penniless before they receive funding.” She asks Lower Saucon Township to fund the library at the level requested in a five-year agreement council rejected earlier this year.
Former Hellertown Area Library board member Lara Goudsouzian, Ph.D., writes that she is “deeply disappointed in my local government” and that she supports “the actions of the Hellertown Area Library Board in removing Lower Saucon Township residents, myself included, from the board.”
Hellertown Area Library Board of Trustees president Ken Solt says in his letter that in spite of a lack of funding from the township, the library will “continue free library services to LST residents for the time being.” Solt also provides insight into conversations with state library officials in which he says it has been learned that the current situation “has no known precedent in the Commonwealth.”