“New Rochelle Public Library Re-Opens” reads a recent TotS Alert. Thanks for the reminder about closures for inclement weather days as well as for the many observances of Presidents’ Day, MLK Day and other national/state holidays! In my 25 years living in New Rochelle, nothing has so distressed me as seeing our NR Public Library closed, impregnably and inaccessibly shuttered, when it might be left open (if only for limited purposes and services) on these otherwise laudable dates devoted to honoring great Americans and significant historical events.
Of all the conflicts, hypocrisies, concessions to political correctness, sellouts to public sector employee compulsory unionism and lily-livered cavings-in by the library board to its workers, nothing all year comes close to these regular acts of professional fecklessness and cowardice.
Has anyone on the board ever wondered how useful this institution would be to the young kids of New Rochelle on days off from regular school? WIth its rich stock of books, videos, CDs and periodicals, the library could be a haven for kids bored at home, or in search of a quiet place to do homework, study, surf the net or do research on the library’s numerous computer workstations. Especially during the winter season (especially in light of the recent heavy snows and forbidding cold) with outdoor activities severely limited, has one single member of our esteemed panel of “bibliotechnical solons” imagined for one single second how access to our city’s greatest intellectual center on MLK Day last week might have been rewarding for some of our less fortunate minority school children not as rich in computers, wide-screen televisions and other household entertainment/educational resources as the rest of us?
I recognize that library employees have enjoyed many days-off for many years now, and I would be the last person to ask them to forego a fringe reward hard-won from library board negotiators through collective bargaining; but would it be too much to ask for some public-spirited workers to trade-off this day for another work day during the year? That is, work MLK day and get another regular day off?
I realize that this change might interfere with the vacation schedules or long-weekend plans of some civil servants, but with sufficient notice I am certain a workable schedule might be arranged that would be fair to management and union alike, and most important, provide a neat educational and recreational benefit to some of the less-wealthy young students in town.
It might provide a useful lesson about the rewards and satisfactions of “service to the community” and what the political philosopher Rousseau referred to as the “Social Contract” for some public employees as well. If this plan were unworkable or some way couldn’t be found around the strictures of the present union contract, perhaps some private volunteers from our many community, social and religious groups and congregations might be encouraged to lend a hand on occasion each year out of respect for the American ideals and special heros of equal social opportunity and individual advancement recognized on these special days.
What would Martin Luther King say?
budget
maybe they could’ve opened on holidays but they used the extra money to re-do there bathrooms $200,000.
condition of NR library
Have you seen the (ecch!!!) bathrooms lately? They look like the “before picture” in a fly-by-night, late night home remodeling commercial.