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July 28, 2009

Prospect Park ends library agreement with Haledon

Monday, July 27, 2009
Last updated: Monday July 27, 2009, 5:59 PM
BY MAGGIE ASTOR
The Record
STAFF WRITER
Prospect Park will again share Hawthorne’s library, terminating an agreement with Haledon that stalled amid a dispute between the Haledon library board and the mayor and council over control of the money involved.

The dispute led to the library board barring Prospect Park residents from checking out books.

The agreement with Haledon began July 1; for the prior two years, Prospect Park shared Hawthorne’s library, an agreement that will resume as soon as both borough councils approve it.

Prospect Park Mayor Mohamed Khairullah said he hopes to eventually have agreements with both Haledon and Hawthorne, allowing residents to choose which library to join. But that will only happen if Haledon resolves its internal dispute.

In reaction to Prospect Park’s move, Haledon Mayor Domenick Stampone said, “It’s no surprise, and I can’t blame them for doing what they had to do, but the [Haledon] governing body did what it had to do to get into the agreement. If it doesn’t succeed, it’s entirely the library board’s fault.”

The library board wanted to control the proceeds from Prospect Park — an estimated $13,000 per year. The Borough Council agreed to put the money in a trust fund for the benefit of the library, but chafed at being asked to relinquish control of it.

Library Director Judie Erk has said that the library board has no problem with the agreement the way it stands, other than wanting some kind of assurance in writing that the money will be spent at the library trustees’ discretion.

But Stampone responded that it was up to the elected governing body to decide how to spend the money.

But while the dispute played out in Haledon, Prospect Park residents were left in the lurch.

“We’ve been happy to help them,” Hawthorne Mayor Richard Goldberg said of sharing his borough’s library. “There’s no extra cost in reality to having someone else take out a book. We look at it as a win-win.”

The cost to Prospect Park will remain the same as in the previous agreement — $50 a year per resident who joins the Hawthorne library — though Khairullah said he would propose to the council a $10 co-pay for residents to offset the cost to the borough.

The money involved is controlled by the governing body, not the library, Goldberg said, and that has caused no major conflict.

Prospect Park and Haledon also — successfully — merged code enforcement services on July 1.

“That’s working out fantastic. I’ve seen results, and fast results,” Khairullah said, adding that issues that used to take weeks to resolve are now taking only days.

Both he and Stampone said they would be open to further service-sharing.

“We’ve been seriously talking about merging services for over a year and a half,” Stampone said. “Absolutely, we’re interested in talking to Prospect Park and other neighboring towns.”

Khairullah agreed, saying “We’re always interested for the purpose of becoming more efficient. If we don’t take advantage of these opportunities, we wouldn’t be serving the taxpayers fully.”

E-mail: astor@northjersey.com

Posted by tumulty at July 28, 2009 12:57 PM

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