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April 23, 2010

Letter: Council should rethink closing the library

northjersery.com
April 15, 2010

Letter: Council should rethink closing the library

Editor, The Times:

I’d like to know when Councilman Pat DeFrancisci plans to put the "For Sale" sign on the lawn of Community Park. I’d like to know when he plans to tell the town that the pool will be closed for the summer. Why keep these places open? There are so many nearby towns that have parks and pools, so let’s just use theirs. Why should Cedar Grove have its own? This must be the direction DeFrancisci is going in when his is in favor of closing the library.

The councilman may have no need for the library, but what about the people who actually want to read a book without having to purchase it? What about the people who use the computers there because they don’t own one of their own? What about the people who use the library as a meeting place since the town doesn’t currently have a community center of its own? Other towns aren’t too eager to let non-residents borrow their community centers.

I would think given the current state of the economy, the library and its inexpensive resources would be even more important. The library offers cultural events, guest speakers and a wonderful summer reading program for our children. How do we emphasize the importance of reading to our children if the town doesn’t have a library? If we close the library, we tell our children that reading isn’t a priority.

DeFrancisci mentions that only 4,700 residents have a library card out of a total of 12,300. The councilman does not take into account that children under the age of five aren’t allowed to have a card of their own so they must rely on their parents. The councilman doesn’t mention that most families don’t have a library card for every member of their household. Does the councilman really have any idea how many people use the library?

Too many people have developed too cheap of a mentality in which they want to cut everything. Many are saying who needs sports, music, languages and now the library? This is so short-sighted. Has anyone stopped to think about the long-term effects? Has anyone thought about the fact that we are putting our children at a disadvantage because they will never be exposed to anything cultural? Now the councilman is proposing never teaching our children how to search for a book at a library because we won’t have one.

I hope that the town council will develop a better solution to our problem than to simply close the library. If the library is such a large expense, how about reducing the number of hours, or analyzing the various expenses to see what can be reduced.

Councilman DeFrancisci, please let me know when you put the "For Sale" sign in front of the park so I can put up a "For Sale" sign of my own.

Christine Dye

Posted by tumulty at April 23, 2010 6:49 PM

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