Posted May 4, 2007.
Medway May Get a State Funding Boost
The Massachusetts House of Representatives has approved legislation that would earmark an additional $250,000 in FY2008 for the cash-strapped Medway Public Library. The State Board of Library Commissioners revoked the library’s certification in February, seven months after voters failed to override the state’s Proposition 2 1/2 tax-limitation law to allow the library to stay open 32 hours a week—the state’s minimum requirement. Although the library escaped closing, it has only been open 20 hours a week since June 2006.
“The library has been consistently on the chopping block,” Rep. James Vallee (D-Franklin) said in the May 2 Franklin Country Gazette. “I think the library has done everything humanly possible to remain open. It’s definitely a show of support from the Legislature.”
Acting Library Director Wendy Rowe told the Gazette that the funding would be enough for the library to be recertified, but she’s not counting on it until the state budget is finalized. “At this point I don’t want to get my hopes up.”
Posted May 4, 2007.