Council Hears Updates on COVID, Library, School Reopening

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• 1) I'm not sure what's worse. The terrible treatment of library employees and failure to protect the library as an institution or the complete lack of transparency and open discussion with community members who are demanding a reasonable explanation. If they are doing everything they can to save the library, then show us, tell us about it. Share your plan as other libraries have. Shutting down the discussion is creating a great deal of anger and distrust in the people who fund the library and elect our officials.

  2) Could the Town Manager share some of these vulgar comments regarding the library? To my knowledge, the bulk of the discussion has taken place on the Winthrop Nice Discussion Group and the Support Winthrop Library Facebook groups where the conversation has been respectful. On the other hand, Mr. Faison has done little to hide his contempt for the challenges he receives over the library. His eye rolling during the public comment period is unprofessional, not to mention disrespectful to the community he's been hired to serve.

• The limited library pick-up and drop-off services we currently have were the result of townspeople agitating to get even this bare-bones minimum, after virtually all the libraries around us and throughout the state had already been offering this service.

  We now have a parallel to that situation, where all or almost all the libraries around us and throughout the state of Massachusetts have returned all their staff (or never furloughed/laid them off in the first place!) and are providing their towns significantly more services than our library is providing us. Many of these libraries are also reopened to the public, with comprehensive - but not costly - safety measures in place in order to do so. Please note that the average cost for other libraries in Massachusetts to open their doors to staff (and some to patrons as well) is about $5000. It is easily achieved with the library funding we currently have. These fully staffed libraries throughout the state include counties that are white, green, yellow, and red on the governor's COVID-19 map. So Winthrop's current yellow status does not preclude employing the full staffing for our library.

  Being asked for patience is a bit rich when we have been stonewalled for months. The foot-dragging from the town manager on this matter astounds me, particularly at a time when public libraries are more vital to citizenry than ever. How is it that our library is virtually the *only* library in MA which has been deemed by its town manager to be too "unsafe" for library staff to be put to work?

  The State guidelines for reopening libraries to services and to reopen to patrons have indicated very clear steps to be followed, with directions offered in both June and July for town managers and library directors to follow. Our library did not. State COVID-19 guidelines specifically for libraries allow for 8 persons per 1000 square feet. Our library square footage would allow 152 people safely, according to Massachusetts guidelines. Our library staff have even worked out a plan where they could come in shifts of 4 people (plus the library director and/or assistant director) so there is 24 hours between each shift. For example, Monday 4-6 people work 7am-1:30pm and Tuesday 4-6 people work 1:30pm-7pm, and so on. Is the town manager really saying that we cannot safely host 5-10 workers in the entirety of our library buildings, for which the state would advise we could have 152 present? There should be no doubt we can easily manage allowing all ten library staff to work, as by all rights they ought to be.

  How is our library director and town manager's approach so vastly out of step with practically every other library director and town manager throughout Massachusetts, in towns both rich and poor and in-between, and in towns with no COVID cases and towns with a relatively high rate of cases? Why is Winthrop so unfortunate that we're the only town with almost no library service at all through a pandemic? Right at the time the townspeople - often isolated and financially struggling - need those services more than ever for job searches, education (both children and adults), information, leisure activity and a sense of community?

  Citing safety during the pandemic time may sound prudent on the service, but in fact the town manager has absolutely no data on how reopening the library to being fully staffed with a mere 10 workers total, in full compliance with state guidelines, would impact the transmission rate of coronavirus in Winthrop, let alone being able to balance that against the benefits of a well functioning library to the town. Clearly his judgment on this matter does not align with his counterparts throughout our state.

  Where is our online summer reading program? Where are the live and recorded cultural and educational events? Where are the reading recommendations and research assistance from the librarians? Where are the educational packs? Where are the copy and scan services? Where is the delivery for invalid patrons who cannot pick up books? Where is the increased digitization within copyright restrictions of our physical materials? Where are the pick-up options for those who cannot come by in the middle of the working day in the working week? Why don't we have our library staff updating and maintaining our databases, digital and physical materials, which all need attention? Why aren't they at work archiving our historical artifacts for the library museum? Why don't we extend the free public wifi to cover the entirety of the library parking lot, to serve those who need it while the building is closed to patrons? This is but a taste of what we should have, and would have if we didn't have just two directors employed instead of our full complement of staff.

  All of the discussion we have seen on this matter has been in official town meetings and social media groups which, although passionate, have not directed any vulgarity toward town workers. All the correspondence we have had with the town manager has likewise been civil, although Mr. Faison has a disappointing tendency to speak over individuals. Perhaps he or another town worker has received some angry messages from a small minority of individuals, which is indeed unfortunate and should not occur, but it does not mean the overall tenor of discussion has "gone overboard." That is an unfair characterization of the engagement of the town on this issue.