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DECEMBER 5, 2019
WILLISTON’S NEWSPAPER SINCE 1985
WILLISTONOBSERVER.COM
Town, trustees negotiate library control By Jason Starr Observer staff
The independence of the Dorothy Alling Memorial Library and the powers of its board of trustees are in flux this fall as town administrators rework language in the town charter. The first of two public hearings was held last month on charter changes related to the role of the town manager and the library board of trustees. The changes shift the responsibility for hiring a library director to the town manager and remove wording giving the trustees “full power to manage the library.” The proposal then adds new wording that gives the trustees power to set library policy and “participate in the hiring of the library director.” The town manager will need the “advice and consent” of the trustees to hire a library director, according to the charter changes. The hiring process came under scrutiny in August when Town Manager Rick McGuire and the trustees collaborated on the hiring of Jane Kearns to replace longtime library director Marti Fiske. The charter changes were drafted to reflect the roles the town manager and trustees took during that process, McGuire said. The changes were a subject of concern during an October meeting of the board of trustees, which is the only elected board of the town other than the selectboard. The trustees acquiesced to giving the town manager hiring responsibility for the library director — while noting that seeking the “advice and consent” of the trustees effectively gives the trustees final say — but disagreed with removing the trustees’ explicit power to “manage the library.”
Observer photo by Jason Starr
The library board of trustees will continue to control library policies, and the town will take responsibility for building maintenence and hiring a library director under an agreement being negotiated between the two entities.
Trustee chairman Steve Perkins wrote a Nov. 1 letter to that effect to the selectboard, and was the only member of the public to speak at the Nov. 5 public hearing on the changes. He emphasized that the library trustees get their authority from the state legislature in a structure set up to ensure the freedom
of information. “Libraries are meant to be independent of municipalities,” Perkins said. While the trustees set library policies, the town manager manages the library budget, handles building maintenance and supports library staff, McGuire said. If the wording that gives the trustees authority to “manage
the library” is retained in the charter, it would not reflect current practice, he said. “The library is a department of the town, just like any other department,” said McGuire. He suggested the details of who manages see LIBRARY page 2
Marshall Ave. bridge fix underway Observer photo by Jason Starr
Crews begin clearing the embankments to the Muddy Brook on Tuesday at Marshall Avenue. Stabilizing the embankments is the key to reopening the bridge there. It has been closed since Nov. 1.
Plans are finalized, federal funds are secured and work has begun to re-open the temporary bridge that spans the Muddy Brook connecting Williston and South Burlington at Marshall Avenue. The bridge has been closed since Nov. 1, after a Halloween eve storm washed out a
culvert beneath the bridge and destabilized the surrounding embankments. Traffic has since been detoured to Route 2. The culvert was first compromised by a 2017 storm. It remained sufficient for normal Muddy Brook flows, and along with a temporary
NOW OPEN
bridge on loan from the Vermont Agency of Transportation, had allowed the road to stay open over the past two years. The Halloween rains destroyed the culvert and rendered the temporary bridge unsafe. On Tuesday, crews from see BRIDGE page 3
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