A crowd of Niles-Maine District Library supporters and employees rallied Tuesday against proposed cuts to the library’s budget and building hours.
More than 150 people gathered at a Niles park close to the library ahead of a July 20 library board meeting where a public hearing on the proposed 2021-22 budget was scheduled.
They marched to the library in time for the public hearing, with many holding signs reading “save our library.”
“It’s easy to destroy something and hard to rebuild it,” said library supporter Janice Cha. “The Niles Library is such a gem in this area.”
“It’s one of the reasons I moved to Niles,” added supporter Helen Poulos-Frys. “I thought it had a great library.”
Many in the crowd chanted “budget cuts have got to go” during the march to the library and packed the room where the public hearing was being held. Several planned to speak. A vote to adopt the budget was scheduled to occur the following day.
Library Trustee Olivia Hanusiak, one of a bloc of four trustees who proposed the significant budget cuts, did not attend Tuesday’s meeting.
The rally was organized by a residents’ group and an employees’ group. They are the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 31, the union representing library employees, and Save Niles Library, an initiative of the Niles Coalition, a group of community members.
On June 16, the library board voted 4-3 in support of a tentative $5.9 million spending plan for the library. The plan represents a 20% budget reduction for the fiscal year which began July 1. It includes $1.5 million in reductions from the original $7.4 million budget presented by staff earlier in June.
Cuts were proposed to personnel, materials such as books and videos, programs and outreach to schools and nursing homes, among other proposed cuts.
Additionally, the tentative budget called for slashing the number of hours the library is open each week. Rather than the regular 70 hours per week, library board members were calling for a 54-hour week. That would close the library on Sundays and curtail evening hours during the week.
Library trustees and administrators have declined to answer questions about the budget and did not respond to a Freedom of Information Act request seeking answers to several questions ahead of the budget meetings.
The library is currently operating without an executive director following the resignation of director Susan Dove Lempke during a meeting of the board on June 18. Lempke said she resigned because she believed the board intended to fire her that evening.
Check https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/niles/ for updates.
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