Finance Board Chairman Responds to Library Trust Article

To the Editor:

Hearing both sides of the story might give readers a different take on the facts of the matter.

There indeed was miscommunication — miscommunication of the trust stipulations, of the financial position of the trust income, and of financial statements.

As a result of questioning of library expenses, the Board of Finance became aware of inconsistent spending of trust income, and requested and obtained a copy of the trust document.  The document has no stipulation for special needs, contrary to what has been stated in the past; instead, it states the income is to be spent each year, "... to be used for general corporate purposes..."

The budget forwarded by the Board of Finance does not "cut" the library - indeed, the town presently funds the library by over $700,000. However, due to the discovery of the true stipulations of the library trust, the inconsistency of guidelines of how the trust income is spent, and the failure to meet the stipulation of spending the trust income every year resulting in a large excess fund balance, the Board thought it prudent to keep the funding of the library at the current level until such time as these issues can be resolved.

Prior to the appearance of this article, an invitation was sent to Mr. Ehlers and Dir. Borchers  to attend the March 20th Board of Finance meeting to open up those communications.

Mark Reed
Chairman, Board of Finance