WHB library boardWesthampton Free Library board (L-R:) Danielle Waskiewicz, director, and board members June Sellin, president Joan Levan, Marth-Ann Betjemann, and Karen Andrews

Westhampton and most other brick and mortar libraries are fighting it tooth and nail but the handwriting is on the wall: they’ve been replaced by something better: the web.

Libraries we’ve encountered in our spring/summer/fall home in Westhampton Beach are mired in local politics, cronyism and inability to accept the new role of libraries as hosts and initiators of discussions as advocated by none other than the American Library Assn.

The WH library, housed in a beautiful new $7.5 million building and sitting on $4.1 million in cash and deposits, sees itself as an aloof referee of topics that others “bring in.”

It does not want to “dirty its hands” actually touching or initiating any of the topics, thus compromising its precious neutrality and detachment.

It hosts, “but does not plan” events, says library director Danielle Waskiewicz. She gives as examples a program dealing with environmental concerns at the local airport and discussions by authors.

Proposals are to be submitted to the board which will then decide whether the topics will be allowed at the library, she says.

If a firefighter saw a nearby house on fire, and occupants who needed saving, would he or she wait for a neighbor to call the fire department? Or would the firefighter do whatever he or she could to help the situation? If you were swimming and saw someone in trouble, would you call the lifeguard or help them?

Westhamtpton Free LibraryWHB Is Under Assault: Help Is Needed Now

The WH library’s own community is under ferocious assault by the East End Eruv Assn. which is not only falsely charging residents with being hostile to ultra-Orthodox Jews but is threatening WHB with more than $1 million in legal costs and penalties. So said lawyer Brian Sokoloff to the WHB board Sept. 3.

Is the library waiting for this writer or someone else to describe the legal terrorism, blackmail and extortion that Southampton has succumbed to and provide, perhaps, a slate of speakers? Then the board will take it up at its next meeting?

It’s obvious the current all-female board headed by Joan Levan is going to do no such thing. It needs to resign immediately, as residents demanded at its Sept. 16 meeting. It should let a real board take its place. The Southampton Press and 27east.com have also covered this story.

Broken Courts, Lax Media, AWOL Schools

Topics that need public pow-wows include the broken courts that have shown by their decisions on eruvim that they have lost touch with common sense and the ability to reason; the lax media that skip this topic, and local schools and colleges that are AWOL on the subject.

Also abandoning and even fighting the citizens on this are Verizon and Long Island Lighting. They have sued WHB, SH and Quogue, demanding that the towns not fight eruvim even though they know more than 90% of their customers are against religious symbols on public property.

Lining up against the citizens are the courts, the politicians, the media, the libraries, the schools and the utilities. SH Press, although it has written many stories about eruvim, is editorially in favor of them saying they are “invisible” so why worry about them?

An especially relevant topic for citizens and students in the East End is income disparity and what might be done about it. The Hamptons are notorious as the land of the “one percent of one percent.”

Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who says, “The middle class is disappearing,” that 35 million are living in poverty, and that “Almost all the new wealth being created goes to the one percent,” is leading Hillary Clinton in Presidential polls in New Hampshire and Vermont.

Citizens Are Interested

Citizens, if kept informed, are interested in WHB governance and what goes on at the library.

More than 60 showed up at the WHB board meeting Feb. 5 to demolish attempts by the Maria Moore Administration to appoint “twin police chiefs” at a cost of $350K.

Acting Police Chief Trevor Gonce, who this year flunked the civil service test to be police chief, was to be overseen by a “police commissioner” at a total cost of about $350K for both.

WHB doesn’t need a police chief to supervise about ten cops. SH, responding to cost savings initiatives by New York State, has been trying unsuccessfully for five years to assume administration of the tiny WHB police dept.

It was hit by criticism last year when it was revealed that Police Chief Ray Dean, then 53, retired with a $403K payout for 521 unused sick, vacation and holiday time plus a $142K annual pension and final pay of $226K. The New York Post headlined: “Huge, Criminal Payout.”

Library Board Drew Record Attendance

The WH library board meeting, which normally attracts one or maybe no citizens (partly because it is held at 9:30 a.m.), drew 35 to its meeting Sept. 16 when citizens were told about alleged abuses by the board.

Residents passed out 200 flyers in front of the library the day before the meeting and the day of the meeting that said the board, which is appointed rather than elected, lacked “accountability, transparency, financial oversight and diversity.”

Employee Sabina Trager has claimed she was unfairly fired by the board on June 23. Staff support of Trager led to the election of a union at the library Aug. 21 by a vote of 31-3.

Virtually all those in the room cheered and applauded when suggestions were made that board president Joan Levan resign.

Pine Barrens PrintingWhy Are Libraries Printing So Much?

Among those speaking at the Sept. 16 meeting was Michael Lennon, president of the library from 2004-2011.

He spoke for about five minutes at the end of the meeting, mostly in support of the work the library is doing, although he said he was “embarrassed” at current developments.

His vision was to make the library a “community center.”

Lennon is one of the leading library figures in the East End, sitting on the board of the Suffolk Library Cooperative System which includes 62 libraries counting branches. He represents East Hampton, Shelter Island and Southampton.

Lennon heads Pine Barrens Printing which prints the bi-monthly WHB four-page, color, 11X17-inch “newsletter” that goes to 14,000 members. Issues cost $4,700 or $28,200 yearly. Pine Barrens also prints stationery, business cards, invitations, envelopes and other materials for the library.

Waskiewicz says Pine Barrens “specializes” in printing for libraries. We don’t doubt that since he is in a close relationship with virtually all the libraries in the East End via his post on the SLCS board.

We are seeking a rundown of all the business he does with the libraries and how they go about picking printers.

Why is all this printing being done in the Age of the Web?

The WH library puts a lot of emphasis on catering to children and young adults. The entire second floor, which has about as much space as the first floor, is for children accompanied by a parent. There is a special large room on the first floor reserved for teenagers.

But what will children learn in such a library? To keep their mouths shut and avoid challenging The Establishment. We bet most local high school and even grade school students know exactly what is going on.