Saucon Source (https://sauconsource.com/tag/hellertown-area-library/)
The Southern Lehigh Public Library (SLPL) Board of Directors met Tuesday to reorganize and to discuss questions involving Lower Saucon Township that one board member said have dominated the majority of their meetings for the better part of a year.
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.
For those who don’t regularly rely on library services it may not seem like a big deal, but for residents of Lower Saucon Township who were Hellertown Area Library cardholders, the news Thursday that Southern Lehigh Public Library will continue to provide them with services and programming no doubt came as a relief.
Lower Saucon Township resident Kimberly Humberd says council needs to explain what its plan is for providing library services to residents, now that they no longer have access to the Hellertown Area Library.
A dispute between Hellertown borough and Lower Saucon Township officials that began with a disagreement over library services and later spread to involve other previously shared facilities has culminated in a lawsuit filed by the borough in the Northampton County Court of Common Pleas.
A Lower Saucon council member Tuesday sharply criticized a resolution authorizing a lawyer and his firm to be the township’s special legal counsel that also retroactively authorized work performed by the firm on library service matters in 2022.
Lower Saucon resident Deb Peters writes that township elected officials should “reconsider the damage” she says they’re doing to the community, including kids like her son. Officials said Friday that they plan to pursue legal action against the state for removing the township from the Hellertown Area Library’s service area effective Jan. 1. HAL requested the change after the township ended its ongoing financial support by rejecting a new five-year agreement earlier this year. The immediate impact is the loss of Hellertown library privileges for thousands of township residents as of Sunday.
Nearly a year after township council declined to adopt a new agreement with the Hellertown Area Library, the state’s Office of Commonwealth Libraries has approved Lower Saucon Township’s removal from the library’s service area. But that’s not where things will end, the township said in a statement released late Friday afternoon, at the start of the long New Year’s holiday weekend.
“Elected officials are supposed to be responsive to the wishes of taxpayers,” writes Lower Saucon Township resident Mary Dawson. “The reputation of our township has been negatively impacted by the actions of council and I would like some answers.”
In the latest edition of the Lower Saucon Township newsletter, the township offers to reimburse residents who purchase a library card up to $40. However, many residents are apparently unsure where–or how–to join a library.