Library backers reeling after ballot loss

CAPE ELIZABETH — When Cape Elizabeth Town Councilor Jessica Sullivan was promoting a $6 million bond issue to rebuild Thomas Memorial Library this fall, handing out flyers at the transfer station to anybody who’d take one, she was approached by what she called a “rather stressed-out looking woman,” who revealed she was out of a job.

“I thought her comment would be, ‘I need my taxes to go down,’ but that’s not what she said,” explained Sullivan, following a meeting of the library’s board of trustees last week. “What she said was, ‘I don’t know what I’d do without this library, because I come in every day to use the computers to look for a job, because I can’t afford cable and I can’t afford the Internet.’”

That encounter, Sullivan said, speaks powerfully to her argument that a library is much more than a simple warehouse for books. However, not enough Cape residents shared that view. Despite near universal agreement that their library has seen its better days, residents rejected a reconstruction bond on Election Day by a sizable margin, 2,696 to 3,566.

“It wasn’t even close,” said Town Manager Michael McGovern.

“I wouldn’t call it a wipeout, but it was decisive,” said Sullivan.

Two days after the vote, library trustees gathered in the basement community room of the library – which is actually an amalgam of old schoolhouses dating as far back as 1849 – to assess the results and decide the next steps.

“I got an inquiry today asking, ‘What’s the plan?’” said Sullivan, who, as a private citizen, founded a political action committee to push the yes vote.

“There is no plan,” she told trustees. “We just have to take some time to review our efforts to date and figure out how to go forward.”

“When you have a vote that was as far apart as this, I don’t think you jump right back into it the next week,” said McGovern in a separate interview, Tuesday.

“We’re going to let the dust settle for a week or two and then begin again,” said Sullivan.

According to Ruth Anne Haley, chairwoman of the library board of trustees, what sunk the library campaign more than anything else was an 11^th hour email blast from two separate opposition groups – the pre-existing Citizen Advocates for Public Education (CAPE) and an ad hoc single-interest group, now reportedly disbanded, known as Cape For All.

On Oct. 25 (CAPE) and Nov. 2 (CFA) the groups noted a facilities study prepared by Harriman and Associates, the Auburn architectural firm behind the South Portland High School renovation and the new Wentworth Intermediate School in Scarborough. According to McGovern, the study cost $26,291. In it, Harriman pegged capital improvement needs and routine maintenance costs for eight municipal buildings, including schools, at up to $13 million over the next decade.

“The study does not include spending for technology upgrades, energy investments, open space purchases, or library construction,” read CAPE’s email. “We encourage you to make your decision on the library with all of the town’s infrastructure in mind.”

In its email, Cape For All claimed that the facilities study flew in the face of Town Council claims that the library project would be tax neutral, because the town will retire $5 million in old debt next year.

“There appears to be an unreconciled contradiction, one that voters should be clear on before passing the bond referendum,” the group said.

McGovern has said the bond, if approved, would have had a “miniscule impact” on tax bills, amounting to an increase of “less than one-half of 1 percent.”

At last week’s trustees meeting, Sulllivan appeared nonplussed that a group of public education advocates would stand in the way of a library overhaul, especially given a list of 102 building deficiencies described in a 2007 “needs assessment” prepared by Himmel & Wilson Library Consultants, of Milton, Wis.

“I really just don’t get that at all,” she said. “For a town like Cape Elizabeth that values education so highly, I found that to be very, very odd."

Meanwhile, Haley complained that Cape For All came and went without anyone from the library ever able to ascertain who was in charge of the group, which was so mysterious, she said, that it put up and took down its roadside signs in the dead of night.

Both women also insist there were errors made concerning the Harriman facilities study, which the council did not take up formally until Nov. 14, as well as in opposition-authored letters to the editor in a community newspaper.

“Some of the information that went out was not correct,” said Haley. “That hurt us the most because there was no way for us to respond in time.”

“I am troubled that, on the Friday afternoon before the vote, an anonymous email was circulated that was full of falsehoods,” said McGovern., faulting Cape For All for not providing real names to contact, as CAPE did.

In its email blast, Cape For All said the town had not done enough to engage residents, instead plunging ahead with a plan that was “not well thought out.”

“Inadequate planning has legacy costs,” the group claimed, citing $3.5 million spent 12 years ago to renovate the police station, which, it said, is now “underutilized” and open only five days per week to the public. But McGovern said the station is open to the public all week long, while the police and fire stations, combined, cost just $2.5 million.

“They said there was not enough public process to this, but, the truth is, this thing was processed to death,” he said. “And yet I don’t think anyone can look at the numbers they threw out for renovation options and suppose there was any process there at all.”

Still, McGovern acknowledged that, as bothered as he was by anonymous campaigning on  “falsehoods,” he doubted the library bond lost on that “last-minute” email alone.

Even library officials admit that, with all spring and summer at its disposal, they failed to fully sell the need for a new library.

Just 28 residents took advantage of guided tours offered in the three months before Election Day. Three separate community tea events drew another 18. An open house that pulled in just four people could properly be termed “a bust,” said the library director, Jay Scherma.

“I think that was one of our major problems,” he said. “We just couldn’t engage the public.”

“I was really crushed that more people who voted against the new library did not take the time to see the very severe problems in this building,” said Sullivan.

“It wasn’t for lack of trying,” said Haley. “I don’t know what else we could have done.”

But if few residents took advantage of offers to see why Cape needs a new library, there are plenty of others using the old one.

The library, which serves 1,600 patrons on average per week, ranks No. 10 among all Maine libraries for traffic in the states; inter-library loan service. It also served 1,350 residents in 50 special programming events for both adults and children during September and October. That, said Scherma, is up 7.5 percent from the previous period and 2.5 percent year-to-year.

“The way we are going, we’ll do over 8,000 people though programs this year, which will be a 40 percent increase,” he said.

That alone should show that Cape needs an better building for its library, said Haley, labeling the opposition as “the Kindle group.”

A second referendum question requiring public approval of any capital expenditure of more than $1 million got on the Nov. 6 ballot after the Town Council briefly considered bypassing voters and approving a library bond on its own. The spending brake was a hit with voters, passing 4,157 to 1,372. Now, that will make effecting even necessary repairs to the library that much more difficult, predicted Haley.

“Right now, a million dollars doesn’t buy a lot,” she said.

Still, said Sullivan, whether it’s a new plan to rebuild, or simply some scope of work for short-term repairs, friends of the library will eventually mount a new drive.  The big question is how badly last week’s vote impacted fundraising possibilities. Officials had hoped to raise $1.5 million on top of the $6 million bond. But, given a decided lack of public support, can the library expect the philanthropic dollars predicted in a capacity study completed last year?

“Even people who are relatively comfortable financially recognize the cost benefit of a public library,” said Sullivan. “It’s free access to public information, in whatever for it takes – digital, printed, magazine, or audio.

“To me that’s what a democracy is,” said Sullivan. “Basically, a library is civilization.”

A CLOSER LOOK

The Thomas Memorial Library will forgive late fees on overdue materials when returned from Dec. 5-19 with the donation of non-perishable food items, to be donated to local food pantries. “It’s our way of recognizing that there are people hurting in this society,” said the library director, Jay Scherma. “More than we need shekels, we need a little human caring.”