MAN SEEKING TO DONATE $100K FOR TOWN'S LIBRARIES
State Says Trustees Must Be Elected

Reprinted with Permission
by Gary E. Lindsley, Staff Writer
The Caldeoian-Record Online Edition
www.caledonianrecord.com

A Woodsville man's desire to give a huge chunk of money to the town for improved library services has raised questions about whether the town's four community libraries are being operated in a legal manner.

When Robert G. Fillion approached Haverhill's selectmen recently about possibly donating some money to the town's libraries, they did not know what to do.

Fillion, who was born in Manchester, N.H., and raised in Haverhill, said he may be willing to give a minimum of $100,000 to improve library services for residents in the town of Haverhill.

The town's board of selectmen on November 27th, did not immediately decide what to do about his offer.

"One thing I noticed is we don't have good libraries in town," Fillion told the selectman. "Therefore, I wanted to see if I could change that. I am [nearly] 80 years old and I am not going to live that many years longer, I am proposing the town have a library it can control."

One of the four libraries in town, the Woodsville Free Library, has an elected board of trustees, despite Fillion's belief that none of them do. He also believes they are not operated like public libraries.

"They don't act like they have the public's interest at heart," Fillion said. "So, I am saying right now, I have $100,000 I want to donate. I also have a $230,000 annuity fund. I also have another $100,000 annuity fund. I am not at this point saying I am going to donate $100,000."

His proposed donation comes with conditions which must be met first.

"I am proposing the select board set up a planning committee to deal with this," Fillion said.

Chairwoman Lynn Wheeler said Fillion's proposal will be placed on the agenda for the board's next meeting. She also thanked him for his generous offer.

Fillion is also requiring, as a condition of his possible donation, the select board have some control over the library facility. He said the town currently does not have any control over any of the Haverhill community libraries, which are in Woodsville, North Haverhill, Haverhill Corner and Pike. The libraries are the Patten-North Haverhill Library, the Woodsville Free Library, the Haverhill Library Association and the Pike Library Association.

"Because currently the Haverhill libraries lack space, money, skills or willingness to provide the quality of services that we find in most town's of Haverhill's size," Fillion said, "The town's library situation becomes more and more intolerable in a rapidly changing world where the place of libraries is on the verge of great change, and competent officials have no say in the management of the libraries."

Just up the road, he said, Littleton has a very efficient library with excellent services. He even suggested Haverhill library officials take a trip to Littleton to see how it is run and what services are provided. But he said he was ignored.

Fillion is publisher of Haverhill Heritage Books and is retired from the U.S. Department of Education.

At his home on Wednesday, Fillion said Haverhill Town Manager Glenn English had told him the libraries are not part of the town.
"I disagree," Fillion said. "It's terrible, the worst condition of any libraries anywhere. Part of it is attitude and the other part is money. If you go into the Woodsville library, it is absolutely the worst. Half of the space in the library is devoted to spreading books on tables. They need more space."

Fillion also said the libraries' trustees hold secret meetings that are not open to the public.

"They had one Monday night and I found out about it," he said. "They said it was not a public meeting."

Frances Krauss, chairman of the Woodsville library's board of trustees, said they met with Fillion in November. Then, they did have another meeting to discuss Fillion's proposal to provide the library with a $500 grant to have books about local history printed.

Krauss said Fillion found out about the meeting the day it was supposed to be held. She told him they wanted to discuss his proposal instead of having to wait until the next official meeting in January. And they wanted to discuss it among themselves.

As for whether it should be open to the public, Krauss said she does not know what the library's by-laws say.

"We are all volunteers," she said. "People are not lining up at the door to be on the library board. We don't know if he is for real. We don't know if he has the money."

Additionally, Krauss does not believe that any of the four communities in the town want to lose their local library.

"We have elderly people who like to walk to the library," she said. "His plan is he wants to see all of his [collection of books] kept in one location. We don't have the space for it. No one on the board wants a centralized public library."

Krauss also thinks Fillion is very offensive because of the conditions he wants to attach to the money.

In talking about Woodsville librarian Dawn Langley, Krauss said, "She is wonderful and she is computer literate. She is working with a tiny budget."

While each library has its own board of trustees, there is also a fifth board that is elected by all residents in the town. That board consists of three members, Susan Brown, Marilyn Spooner, and Eleanor Ingbretson.

"We have no idea what they do," English said.

Every year, the town "donates" a total of $40,000 for the four libraries. The money is a line item in the town's budget.

English believes the issues regarding the town's libraries include how often they are open, how they buy their books and how the money is used.

"You have four libraries married to their buildings," he said. "Should the issue be buildings or library services? Do we really need four?"

The four community libraries, he said, were created at a time when transportation was not readily available.

English said he has been in contact with officials at the New Hampshire State Library. He spoke with Thomas Ladd, an education librarian II in the Library Development Services Section.

"He told me we have a unique situation," English said. He said [the libraries] all filed with the state as municipal libraries."
Ladd was not available Friday, but his supervisor, Susan Palmatier, said she was familiar with the situation in Haverhill. She said the state has extensive library laws, including requiring library boards of trustees to be elected by community residents.

She also said it depends on how the libraries in Haverhill were formed in the first place.

"If they were formed by the town, [trustees] have to be elected," Palmatier said. "If privately [formed], and they do receive public money, they have to have one publicly elected trustee."

Although state library officials are looking into the matter, Palmatier said, they cannot officially do anything unless someone in authority in the town asks the state to step in.

"We have not been asked in by any authority or any trustee," she said. "We might talk to the state [attorney general] and state librarian first."

Palmatier said in her 31 years of services at the New Hampshire State Library, she has never encountered a similar situation.

"It's kind of odd," she said.

Regarding the Woodsville library trustees, Palmatier said the meetings must be public.

"I hate to see public appearing bodies not open to the public," she said.

As for Fillion, he is waiting for his proposed minimum offer of $100,000 to be discussed at the next town selectman's meeting.

"I would like to see a committee set up and I would like to see central services set up," Fillion said. "I am not going to deal with trustees not elected by the voters. I want to do this while I am still sane."