Library sale highlights budget shortfalls

AMENIA — The Amenia Free Library held its fall book and bake sale this past weekend, netting a total profit of about $520. It wasn’t the most successful sale the library has ever held, for certain, but what it may have highlighted is the difficult financial spot the library’s board will be in the months ahead.

“What $520 will be enough to pay for is another week or two of expenses,� library board Treasurer Charlotte Murphy said after the event. “But there are all kinds of costs, and it’s going to be tight getting through the year.�

The library holds two book and bake sales annually, one in the summer and one in the fall. The summer sale is usually the larger of the two, and Murphy acknowledged that due to the conflicting schedules of board members, last weekend’s sale wasn’t as organized as events have been in the past.

The book and bake sale is second in fundraising totals only to the library’s annual fundraising letter, which is sent out every February. That letter collected more than $4,000 for the library this year, which operates on a budget of approximately $60,000, most of which comes from the town.

But as Murphy pointed out, the trickle-down effect of the economy is putting additional pressure on small town libraries that they haven’t seen before. Due to budget cutbacks, the Mid-Hudson Library System was forced to pass down the costs of book deliveries (about $1,000 for four deliveries to Amenia this year, Murphy said) as well as $2,500 that had been used for the library’s summer programming.

“We really are pretty bare-boned,� Murphy said. “We’ll be doing our last book committee meeting of the year to order books soon, and then won’t order more until the end of the year. Other than that, what can you do? We can’t cut employees any more than we have already. It’s a problem.�

The library has had at least one saving grace recently that has allowed it to continue to offer unique programming: A $42,000 donation from the sale of the Amenia Nursery building has been specifically earmarked for use in developing a children’s learning program. Lesley Gyorsok was brought on last year to helm the program, and the funds used to pay her and operating costs have not affected the library’s overall budget and will not for at least two more years, Murphy said. After that is an unknown.

“But we feel that program has been a big accomplishment on our part,� she said. “And we’re right on target currently as far as covering those costs.�

In a worst-case scenario, Murphy said, the library might need to close one day of the week. But that’s a slippery slope, she pointed out, and one that is not high up on anyone’s list.

“I certainly don’t want to do that,� she stressed, “and I don’t think there’s anyone else on the board that wants to do that, either.�

Latest News

South Kent School’s unofficial March reunion

Elmarko Jackson was named a 2023 McDonald’s All American in his senior year at South Kent School. He helped lead the Cardinals to a New England Prep School Athletic Conference (NEPSAC) AAA title victory and was recruited to play at the University of Kansas. This March he will play point guard for the Jayhawks when they enter the tournament as a No. 4 seed against (13) Samford University.

Riley Klein

SOUTH KENT — March Madness will feature seven former South Kent Cardinals who now play on Division 1 NCAA teams.

The top-tier high school basketball program will be well represented with graduates from each of the past three years heading to “The Big Dance.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Hotchkiss grads dancing with Yale

Nick Townsend helped Yale win the Ivy League.

Screenshot from ESPN+ Broadcast

LAKEVILLE — Yale University advanced to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament after a buzzer-beater win over Brown University in the Ivy League championship game Sunday, March 17.

On Yale’s roster this year are two graduates of The Hotchkiss School: Nick Townsend, class of ‘22, and Jack Molloy, class of ‘21. Townsend wears No. 42 and Molloy wears No. 33.

Keep ReadingShow less
Handbells of St. Andrew’s to ring out Easter morning

Anne Everett and Bonnie Rosborough wait their turn to sound notes as bell ringers practicing to take part in the Easter morning service at St. Andrew’s Church.

Kathryn Boughton

KENT—There will be a joyful noise in St. Andrew’s Church Easter morning when a set of handbells donated to the church some 40 years ago are used for the first time by a choir currently rehearsing with music director Susan Guse.

Guse said that the church got the valuable three-octave set when Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center closed in the late 1980s and the bells were donated to the church. “The center used the bells for music therapy for younger patients. Our priest then was chaplain there and when the center closed, he brought the bells here,” she explained.

Keep ReadingShow less
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Penguin Random House

‘Picasso’s War” by Foreign Affairs senior editor Hugh Eakin, who has written about the art world for publications like The New York Review of Books, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and The New York Times, is not about Pablo Picasso’s time in Nazi-occupied Paris and being harassed by the Gestapo, nor about his 1937 oil painting “Guernica,” in response to the aerial bombing of civilians in the Basque town during the Spanish Civil War.

Instead, the Penguin Random House book’s subtitle makes a clearer statement of intent: “How Modern Art Came To America.” This war was not between military forces but a cultural war combating America’s distaste for the emerging modernism that had flourished in Europe in the early decades of the 20th century.

Keep ReadingShow less