Why are you running?
The current Westborough library management and library building committee and Westborough select board and Westborough finance committee seem to have a hard time understanding the Westborough community is not interested in their grand scheme for the Westborough library. Please fix the roof and windows and quit using the needed repairs to try and build the Taj Mahal.
What are the three biggest issues facing Westborough Public Library?
1. The ridiculous claim that there is a staff turnover problem.2. The Westborough town just bought a community center, the library does not need to build itself into another community center, it can remain as it is, a library. 3. The teen wellness section is brimming with the abc peoples propaganda/books/pamphlets from outmetrowest and others of the ilk, so the current library management must think that increasing this population in the community is the most important objective for teens, I would say, enough already, your goal has been met, 31% of Westborough high school girls identify as lesbians of one sort or another.
With recent book challenges, what is your stance on book bans?
Mary Johnston, the chair of the Westborough Public Library Board of Trustees was grateful that the Westborough citizen petitioned for reconsideration on “Vaginas: An Important Book about Vulvas, Periods, Puberty and Sex!” by Dr. Alison K. Rogers, the Westborough citizens toddler, got it off the bottom shelf in the children’s library and the child’s mother thought it inappropriate for her toddler to see a vagina with pubic hair and sexual intercourse image depictions. Mary Johnston had Maureen Amyot the library director also opining about the request for reconsideration on how wonderful it was that they could reach a mutual compromise and raise books of that category to higher shelves in the children’s library. That’s me at the meeting standing on the right. Mary and Maureen seen at the table. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately for the trustees, the meeting was not video recorded by Westborough TV, so the “book banning” story continues to have legs.
Where would you like to see the library in the next five years?
I’d like to see Mary Johnston, the chair of the Westborough Public Library Board of Trustees, play nice with the church next door again so the library can share their parking lot. There seemed to be a throwdown when the library wanted to dig a thirty foot deep pit next to the church’s foundation as part of the library/community center rebuild plan by Vertex and LPAA that has been voted down twice by the citizens of Westborough, vote, revote… no doubt another attempt will be made at a grand renovation, I’d like to see the madness stopped. Of course there is the zero carbon Westborough contingent led by Pete Dunbeck that would love to make the library the first in the nation zero carbon library like the Fales school 100 million dollar net zero fiasco.
What is your opinion on the proposed repair project at Westborough Public Library?
To see if the town will vote on a non-binding resolution to leave the library building alone. Repair as needed, roofs, windows, carpets, no heat pumps, no conversion of natural gas heating to electric, no electric rewiring for massive draw of electric heating. I think we can cost effectively repair it. The slate roofing on the original 1908 building can be removed, the roof sheeting and fascia replaced/repaired as needed, and the slate tiles reinstalled. The roof on the addition can be redone also. The windows can be repaired one at a time without causing any downtime in the library operations. We will soon see the third iteration of the pig with different lipstick, it is still the same pig, how many times must the town vote down this same project from LPA/A and Vertex that the library trustees and library building committee relentlessly present?
What is your relevant experience to serve as a Trustee of the Public Library?
I would not be surprised if I was the patron who used the library more than any other citizen in town. We could ask the library director Maureen Amyot and find out, she might not tell me, but she might tell you. I have been to many library events pertaining to children and adults, fun and/or informative and that have to do with the plans for the future of the library. I have sixth and seventh graders in Westborough schools that often accompany me at the library. I have been to many library trustee and library building committee meetings and have a feel for the players.
Editor’s note: These are the statements as submitted by the candidate and have been unedited. Claims made by the candidates represent their own views and have not been fact checked by our editorial team.
