A Massachusetts town may soon be losing its library amid a $7 million budget deficit
The Abbot Library in Marblehead will close its doors in December if the town can't come up with an override to fix their roughly $7 million budget deficit.
The Abbot Library in Marblehead will close its doors in December if the town can't come up with an override to fix their roughly $7 million budget deficit. The library just went through a $10 million renovation that was completed in 2024.
"It is hard to believe because of the value that we provide to the town of Marblehead through our services comes to about $5 million each year," said Kimberly Grad, director of the Abbot Library.
In addition to providing books, games, DVDs, and other rentals, the library offers meeting rooms, study areas, programs, and a maker's area for crafters.
Two plans to balance budget
Their future lies in the hands of the town as it looks to balance the budget. The lofty deficit is in part due to increases in health insurance costs, and their 10-year contract for trash pickup ending.
"We are getting an adjustment to the current market prices for that," said Marblehead Town Administrator Thatcher Kezer.
Due to restrictions from Prop 2.5, Kezer says the city is restricted to only increasing new town revenue by $2.2 million, which is not enough to offset cost inflation.
Kezer says there are two plans in place. Plan A makes major cuts to services, while Plan B is a hybrid of raising funds through trash collection taxes and still more cuts to services like the library.
"In scenario A the library and other departments are closed. Under scenario B we are able to put funding to all of those services, but not at the full level," said Kezer.
Library certification concerns
The issue is that to remain state certified, the library must maintain requirements they can't meet even on a lesser budget.
"With cuts provided to salaries, we cannot staff 50-hours a week," said Grad of one requirement. "Once a municipality gets decertified, it takes years to come back to the level of meeting municipal appropriation requirements."
This means they would have to withdraw from their regional library system known as the NOBLE system. The result would block their members from using any of the other 17 area libraries in the system.
"My library card would be dead, and that would be a huge impact to me," said library member Judy Eissner. "I am an avid reader, and I get three or four books a month from the library and the NOBLE system. If the library is closed, that won't even be available to me. I won't be able to go to the neighboring towns."
Eissner came to the library Wednesday for the Cookbook Club. A group that comes with prepared dishes they made from cookbooks at the library. Some weeks have a theme.
"More and more people are isolated, and don't get with friends, and this is a wonderful way to spend lunch time," said Eissner.
The town is in discussions for an override that would allow the town to increase taxes to save certain services. Without it, the library will close in December.
"We are hoping to be funded enough to apply for a waiver from the state board of library commissioners," said Grad.
The waiver would allow them to remain certified open despite not meeting all of the requirements. The following year the budget will be addressed again, and funding could increase allowing them to return to normal, however, the damage may already be done without the override.
