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December 1, 2008
Proposal to close Bridgeton Library upsets neighbors
By JOHN MARTINS Staff Writer, 856-794-5114
Published: Friday, November 28, 2008
The Press of Atlantic City
BRIDGETON - For 17-year-old Juana Lopez, going to the local library is part of her routine.
It's a sure bet that she's there every Saturday, and Lopez said she tries to swing by most days after school, too. But the Walnut Street resident said that will change if the city decides to close the facility and refer patrons to the county library less than 2 miles away.
"I don't have a car," Lopez said Tuesday as she sat in the library's young-adult section with her friend, Gloria Santiago. "I don't even know how to drive."
Even if the city made good on its promise and offered a shuttle service, Lopez said it is still unlikely she'd be able to go. Santiago said she'd be in the same boat, for the simple reason that her parents just would not allow it.
"My mother wouldn't let me," the 16-year-old North Pearl Street resident said. "It's too far."
In the past several weeks, officials in this cash-strapped city have floated the idea that it would make financial sense to close the 85-year-old library, which cost city taxpayers about $337,000 in 2008.
If the library were to close, Business Administrator Arch Liston said it would be less expensive to offer a citywide shuttle service to the county-run library at the city's eastern border. The cost savings in that plan, Liston said, would amount to $1 million over five years.
No decision, though, has been made, and City Council members have indicated that there would be a public hearing on the matter before any action was taken.
City Council President Celese Riley said on Tuesday night that she and other lawmakers were exploring other alternatives.
"This city is doing the best it can," Riley said, adding that she understood how important the library is to city residents. "It is the heart of our community. It is the one place in the community where we could all meet, where we could all get together."
Those connected to the library, however, say the small facility does much more for the people who use it on a regular basis.
Gail Robinson, the library's executive director, said the library is a critical resource for city residents young and old who rely on its seven computers for projects ranging from school assignments to job applications.
"We have really noticed an increase in people using the computers to do job searches," Robinson said.
About 6,500 people use the library per month, a figure that was determined after library staff started counting patrons in October 2007.
Much of the facility's patronage is in its walk-in business from the surrounding Milltown neighborhood, which in recent years has become an enclave for the city's burgeoning Hispanic population.
Nereida Pantaleon, 30, the library's bilingual assistant, said that the library's free Internet connection enables residents, many of whom are poor, to stay in contact with loved ones who are living in other countries.
"Honestly, this is the only way for them to communicate with family members," Pantaleon said.
Nancy Forester, director of the Cumberland County Library, said she understood the Bridgeton library's importance to the community it serves.
"They have a library that is important," Forester said, adding that there was no other place in Bridgeton that offered the same types of services. "There's a lot of poor people here, and they use both libraries. They apply for jobs. They do their taxes. We serve people from the cradle to the grave. I think it's sad that people don't realize that."
Riley said the city is making an application for a $20,000 shared-services grant to study the feasibility of combining the city and county libraries.
Riley said she was also interested in exploring the possibility of using the soon-to-be-vacated Bridgeton City Hall - which is located directly across Bank Street from the original city library - as a future home for any new merged city/county venture.
Posted by tumulty at December 1, 2008 11:37 AM
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