Published February 10, 2021

By MARK SARDELLA

WAKEFIELD — With the Library Department’s FY 2022 budget on the agenda at Monday’s meeting, several town councilors took the opportunity to question Library Director Catherine McDonald about plans to reopen the library building to the public.

Town Council Chair Ann Santos noted that a lot of other town employees have gone back to work since the COVID shutdowns. She wondered why the library couldn’t begin taking some small steps to open the facility. The library has been running a very popular and successful “side door service,” whereby people can pick up and return borrowed books and other items at the Avon Street entrance. But the building itself has now been closed to the public for nearly a year.

McDonald said that the the issue of reopening is on the agenda of every meeting of the Board of Library Trustees. But she explained that, due to space limitations and social distancing requirements, the library can serve more people right now with the building closed than it could with the building open.

She said that due to tight quarters in library offices, the ability to process new books and other materials now requires most of the first floor to allow staff to social distance. She noted that the few libraries in the area that have reopened have buildings much larger than Beebe Library.

She assured the Town Council that no one wants to reopen the library more than the staff. The work they are doing now is tedious and labor intensive, she said, with none of the variety that comes from interacting with the public.

“It’s a very social place,” McDonald said. “This is not an advantage to us.”

She said that the library will continue to monitor the vaccination rates. She indicated that the sooner librarians are vaccinated, the sooner the library will be able to open.

Town Councilor Edward Dombroski wondered if some kind of a hybrid  model of in-person and side-door service would be a possibility. He noted that public buildings are now allowed to open at 40 percent capacity. He saw the need for some kind of a hybrid model even after people are vaccinated, so he wondered why it couldn’t happen sooner rather than later.

McDonald agreed that some level of curbside library service is here to stay, as many people enjoy the convenience. She said that the library needs to be prepared to shift to a hybrid model when the time comes. She added that she hoped that that day would not be long in coming. As more vaccine becomes available, she anticipated that reopening the library may not be far off.

“A lot of people want to get back in the building,” she acknowledged. “And we are anxious to get back.” 

The Town Council voted to approve the library’s FY 2022 budget at $1,751,632. The budget reflects an increase of $20,999 over the current year, with $18,839 of the increase in personal services for negotiated contractual salary increases.

Dan Sherman of the Finance Committee’s Library Subcommittee said that the budget as presented seemed appropriate.