When it comes to the Kennett library, the only consensus likely to surface amid roiling tensions is that the facility remains beloved and passions about it run deep.
With more than 100,000 visits a year – and an increase in circulation that defies today’s norm – the library serves residents in the Borough of Kennett Square and seven townships: East Marlborough, Kennett, Newlin, New Garden, Pennsbury, Pocopson, and West Marlborough.
Most stakeholders agree that it has outgrown its space in downtown Kennett Square, but solving that problem represents one of myriad sources of contention.
At a recent town hall-style meeting at the library – the fourth in three months – Library Board President Susan Mackey-Kallis and Board Vice-President Geoff Birkett, who were joined by board members Joan Weber, Karen Ammon and Douglas Thompson, did their best to persuade an audience of about 30 that the board is committed to transparency and stability in its quest to move the library forward.
And although Mackey-Kallis and Birkett expressed an interest in beginning a new chapter and leaving the past behind, many members of the audience responded with skepticism. They asked numerous questions, suggesting that previous mistakes and miscommunication needed to be understood so they wouldn’t be repeated. For example, what has caused the board’s revolving door?
Kennett Township resident Sara Leff likened the exits of a handful of board members over the past year to an out-of-control merry-go-round, with members trying to hold on but ultimately spinning off in various directions.
Kennett Township Supervisors’ Chairman Scudder G. Stevens referenced a resignation letter disseminated in late April. It was signed by three board members – Jim Nelson, Henry “Jerry” Brown, and Carol Starzmann – who allegedly felt that Barbara Cairns, the former board president, had been unjustly forced to resign and that the board routinely used aggressive tactics to quell any dissent.
Mackey-Kallis disputed that account, explaining that the board got inaccurate information from Cairns regarding billing by Lukmire Partnership, Inc., the architectural firm that had been selected to design a new library. She said tensions developed because the current board leadership is trying to replace talking about change with accomplishing it.
Complicating the situation further, Donna Murray, the library’s director, said two days later that she had spoken with Brown, who said that he had not resigned and that his name should not have been on the letter. Repeated efforts to reach him were unsuccessful.
“It’s been a difficult transition,” Birkett acknowledged on Tuesday night. He said the board is looking for new members, realizing that the turmoil has made it “radioactive.” He said the present board gets along well and includes a couple of new members he called “braver than most.”
Birkett said the board wants the public to know that the controversial decisions to change the name of the library from Bayard Taylor Memorial to Kennett Public and to relocate to a new facility on Waywood Road in Kennett Township – on property the library already owns – are not preordained. “We will be influenced by what you think,” he said.
Kennett Township resident Allan Andrade, a history buff and author of a book on the sinking of the SS Leopoldville in World War II, was pleased to hear that. He said he feared that losing the name of Bayard Taylor, a pioneering travel writer and poet, represented another example of America’s dying heritage. “Bayard Taylor put Kennett on the map,” he said.
Mackey-Kallis said the library was simply seeking a more modern moniker and that Bayard Taylor would be suitably honored in the new facility with a reading room that would contain the library’s bust of Taylor as well as other memorabilia. The library even owns Taylor’s potty chair, she said.
Collis Townsend, a former board member, raised a different issue about the name: Is the Kennett library public or private? The fact that it’s owned by the board, not a municipality, suggests that it’s a private entity, he said.
“It’s semantics,” Murray responded, explaining that many libraries with private ownership operate as public facilities. Mackey-Kallis said the board received legal advice approving the name change, but Townsend said the issue came up years ago and generated a different legal opinion.
Despite a willingness to revisit decisions on the name and the location of the library, Mackey-Kallis said the board would not get mired down by the kind of inaction that plagued previous ones. “We’re not waiting another 10 years” for a new facility, she said.
Stevens asked whether Mackey-Kallis had discussed staying in the borough with Kennett Square Borough Council, and she said no.
In the meantime, Birkett said the board wanted to dispel some of the other misconceptions that have pervaded social media. He said the board has about $2.5 million of the estimated $12 million needed to fund the new facility. The money is in a restricted account, and the principal has not been touched, he said.
In addition, he said no architect was under contract for the project, and no one on the board would be hired to do any work for the library. “That would be a conflict of interest,” he said.
Burkett said the present board has no agenda besides improving communication, balancing the budget, and seeing the library and its programs flourish. “We’re doing it because we love the library,” he said.
Mackey-Kallis said the library and its staff have won awards and grants for innovative programs, and she said she hoped residents would attend the grand reopening of the current facility, which was held Thursday night.
“We are certainly dedicated to conversations like this,” Mackay-Kallis said of Tuesday’s meeting. “We are always about total transparency.”
After the meeting, Stevens said Kennett Township is understandably concerned about the dissension that has plagued the library board for some time.
“The township is cognizant of the importance of the library to its residents, and it is cognizant of the fact that we fund a significant portion of the library’s budget,” he said.
Stevens said the township has been looking into resources it might have that could help resolve the problems. “We expect to be addressing that in a public fashion in the near future,” he said.
Leff said she was guardedly optimistic that the problems would be solved. “This is a breath of fresh air and a great positive first step,” she said of the meeting.
She said she felt the board’s biggest hurdle would be reestablishing trust. “I think they’re doing the right thing,” she said, “ but the public has to help. This isn’t the time to sit and complain. People need to step up and get involved.”
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If you are interested in being on this board, be prepared to agree with them. It seems dissent is not welcome. Questions are not answered. I have asked a few questions and I have been patronized and mocked. Good luck to any new board members.