The library board voted last night to cut our hours. Starting August 22nd the main branch will be open M & T 9-9, W-Sat 9-6. The branch will be open M & T 10-7pm, W-F 10-6. The loss in hours downtown is about 6 per week with the branch being a loss of 3 hours per week as they'll now be closed on Saturdays.
In addition to our hours being reduced, we had a voluntary buyout of 10 employees, 5 of whom will not be replaced. All staff has also been at a wage freeze for about 3 years.
Our budget shortfall this year was around $250,000. Next year it is anticipated we will have a similar shortfall.
The library is funded primarily through property taxes. I'm not sure if anyone has noticed, but Michigan isn't exactly the most economically vibrant state these days. Our property valuations have decreased dramatically over the past 5 years. It is not expected to turn around for at least 2 or 3 more years.
It seems this vote created a fair amount of controversy mostly due to the public feeling they were not informed in advance the reduction in hours was a possibility. While I can understand their frustration, the library is a transparent institution. The board meetings are open to the public. Copies of our board meeting minutes are available to the public online (through May) and in the library at the reference desk (up to date). The entire budget is made available to the public as well. If someone had attended board meetings, they would have known the board had been discussing the possibility of reducing hours since last fall. Our local newspapers are provided with board meeting packets ahead of time. It has been months since anyone from the press attended a meeting.
It has been suggested we charge an annual fee for our cards. We already do that. It's called taxes. 1.1 mils is levied against all property owners in the district. It has been suggested closing the library 2 nights a week is inconvenient to people who work. The hours selected for closure were the hours the least amount of people were using the library. I was one of the people taking gate counts last year every hour for a few weeks to determine when we were the least busy.
I get it. I really do. I hate that we're closing 2 nights a week. But this is temporary. And it's necessary. We are a quarter of a million dollars short on our budget. We cannot afford to stay open.
And if you're a community member? Please, please, please come in and talk to our director. Please, please, please come in and ask for our board meeting minutes. Please, please, please consider attending our board meetings (3rd Thursday of every month at 4pm) or contacting your board members.
This is YOUR library. Be informed. Get involved.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
"we're one cubs game away from a ferris bueller day"
I could go on ad nauseum about our Pitchfork Music Festival/urban biking adventure/awesome foodstuffs/Art Institute weekend in Chicago. I won't because most of you will be forced to listen to me go on and on about how amazing biking in that city can be, and how the contrast between hearing Animal Collective on Friday night and Fleet Foxes on Saturday night was so perfect and unique, and lula continues to be delicious, and watching Ariel Pink for 30 minutes before he had his typical meltdown was so worth it, and the Viking Funeral from The Whistler might be the single best cocktail I ever had followed very close behind by the gin/cucumber/lime/cilantro drink Christina introduced me to, and the Tour de Fat bike parade was incredible, and the beer cheese from the Berghoff is probably chock full of crack it's so addictive, and The Girl and the Goat was even better than I expected, and Odd Future was crazy offensively entertaining, and going to a bike-friendly restaurant like Handlebar means you can safely lock up your bike and eat delicious vegan food, and just walking into the Art Institute for the first time in my life got me a little choked up, and I can't help it-I still love the CTA, and stumbling upon a brewery like The Haymarket with a solid IPA after a weekend of Heineken light is just what the beer doctor ordered, and discovering a new band like Wild Nothing is what makes Pitchfork my favorite festival, and! and! and!
We should go out for drinks and I'll detail the ride through Wicker Park on Saturday night at 10:30 pm, and describe the flavor of the baby grilled octopus we had yesterday, and attempt to explain how I felt when Peter found the Joseph Cornell boxes in the modern European wing at the museum,
and! and! and!
We should go out for drinks and I'll detail the ride through Wicker Park on Saturday night at 10:30 pm, and describe the flavor of the baby grilled octopus we had yesterday, and attempt to explain how I felt when Peter found the Joseph Cornell boxes in the modern European wing at the museum,
and! and! and!
Thursday, July 14, 2011
new nephew alert: Silas James was born July 13, 2011!
Lucky Peach is the bomb. I am obsessed. I was planning on taking it to Chicago with me, but have recently decided I don't want to risk it getting wet/wrinkled/crushed/whathaveyoued. It is beautifully designed and so well written it makes me want to never write about food again because I am not worthy after reading Peter Meehan describe a tour of ramen shops he took in Toyoko with David Chang. DAVID EFFING CHANG, PEOPLE! My mythological husband Anthony Bourdain has a column that will appear in every issue. Wylie Dufresne, David Chang, and Anthony Bourdain have a rambling conversation during which Wylie disses the farm-to-table movement! I haven't read that part yet, but Jesus Harold Christ, I'm fairly certain it's going to make me tingly in my girlie parts. Though the first issue is primarily about ramen (Ruth REICHL reviews instant ramen packets!!!) there is this glorious section in that back that is devoted to my beloved egg. 60 minute eggs, perfect soft eggs, eggs beautiful eggs! It's food porn for food nerds. Buy it. BUY IT. And if you're lucky enough to have an ipad, it is or shall soon be available as an app. I don't even really know what that means, but I'm seriously considering purchasing an ipad so I can get it.
This Lucky Peach app thing.
A storm of epic proportions swept through Holland on Monday at 10:30am. I know it was 10:30am because I happened to be in the library at the time. We lost power and a big old tree fell down right in front blocking River Avenue in both directions. Pine Avenue looked like a Michael Bay movie with telephone poles and electrical wires crisscrossing the road. Power wasn't restored to the library until late Tuesday night (no, I didn't get the day off. And no, I don't want to talk about how it all went down), but thankfully we had ours back on by Monday night around 5:30 allowing me to stop freaking out about my expensive meats and delicious cheeses I had in my fridge. It's funny how much one takes electricity for granted until one no longer has it. "I'm hot. I'm going to turn on a fan. Damn it! I can't turn on a fan. I know, I'll have a glass of ice water. Damn it! I can't open the freezer." Not so bright, this one. Thankfully, my foodstuffs were saved and resulted in a delicious Tuesday night supper of pesto pasta salad with goat cheese, kale salad with tomatoes and balsamic vinaigrette, and the once-a-year-because-it's-ridiculously-rich almond and cheese stuffed zucchini. All served cold. Because it's been so stinkin' hot.
In an unexpected turn of events, instead of taking the train to Chicago this weekend, we are driving the car. The car which now has four (4!) new tires. We're also taking our bikes because...drumroll please...we are going to bike around Chicago. When we first bought tickets, I suggested we bike to Pitchfork. For some reason, the all-biking-all-the-time Kevin was kind of meh about the idea. This week the alien that had clearly taken over his brain finally freed Kevin and we're back to biking! I'm so psyched. A little freaked out because I, uh, haven't been biking as much as I have in the past and I'll be biking in a kinda sorta big city. But Kevin happens to be a league cycling instructor which can only mean he'll shield me from making some sort of embarrassing lane faux pas. And keep us to the less frightening streets. And it's only 4 miles so I know I can do that physically. And hopefully knowing I have to bike home at 10pm will keep me from underhydrating as it's gonna be all kinds of steamy in the Windy City this weekend.
The fact that the only beer available at Pitchfork is Heineken will also help as I'm not so much of a fan.
Did I mention I might be going to Hot Doug's too? For a fois gras dog? And maybe hopefully Lula's for brunch on Saturday or Sunday? And the perfect ending to the perfect weekend being a meal at Girl and the Goat?
To do: pick up bikes from bike shop, pick up bike rack from Kari, swing by the beer store for some much deserved beer for Melissa, hit the VanTils to meet Silas, don't go to Butch's for a gin and tonic, pack for Chicago, enjoy what will surely be a glorious weekend of music and food and really good friends.
This Lucky Peach app thing.
A storm of epic proportions swept through Holland on Monday at 10:30am. I know it was 10:30am because I happened to be in the library at the time. We lost power and a big old tree fell down right in front blocking River Avenue in both directions. Pine Avenue looked like a Michael Bay movie with telephone poles and electrical wires crisscrossing the road. Power wasn't restored to the library until late Tuesday night (no, I didn't get the day off. And no, I don't want to talk about how it all went down), but thankfully we had ours back on by Monday night around 5:30 allowing me to stop freaking out about my expensive meats and delicious cheeses I had in my fridge. It's funny how much one takes electricity for granted until one no longer has it. "I'm hot. I'm going to turn on a fan. Damn it! I can't turn on a fan. I know, I'll have a glass of ice water. Damn it! I can't open the freezer." Not so bright, this one. Thankfully, my foodstuffs were saved and resulted in a delicious Tuesday night supper of pesto pasta salad with goat cheese, kale salad with tomatoes and balsamic vinaigrette, and the once-a-year-because-it's-ridiculously-rich almond and cheese stuffed zucchini. All served cold. Because it's been so stinkin' hot.
In an unexpected turn of events, instead of taking the train to Chicago this weekend, we are driving the car. The car which now has four (4!) new tires. We're also taking our bikes because...drumroll please...we are going to bike around Chicago. When we first bought tickets, I suggested we bike to Pitchfork. For some reason, the all-biking-all-the-time Kevin was kind of meh about the idea. This week the alien that had clearly taken over his brain finally freed Kevin and we're back to biking! I'm so psyched. A little freaked out because I, uh, haven't been biking as much as I have in the past and I'll be biking in a kinda sorta big city. But Kevin happens to be a league cycling instructor which can only mean he'll shield me from making some sort of embarrassing lane faux pas. And keep us to the less frightening streets. And it's only 4 miles so I know I can do that physically. And hopefully knowing I have to bike home at 10pm will keep me from underhydrating as it's gonna be all kinds of steamy in the Windy City this weekend.
The fact that the only beer available at Pitchfork is Heineken will also help as I'm not so much of a fan.
Did I mention I might be going to Hot Doug's too? For a fois gras dog? And maybe hopefully Lula's for brunch on Saturday or Sunday? And the perfect ending to the perfect weekend being a meal at Girl and the Goat?
To do: pick up bikes from bike shop, pick up bike rack from Kari, swing by the beer store for some much deserved beer for Melissa, hit the VanTils to meet Silas, don't go to Butch's for a gin and tonic, pack for Chicago, enjoy what will surely be a glorious weekend of music and food and really good friends.
Friday, July 8, 2011
let them eat pigface
It was one of those weeks where it felt like the majority of people were looking at a page and reading a page and reacting to a page and I was wondering why they were even looking at that particular book.
I came thiiiis close to defriending every single person who commented on/were upset by the Casey Anthony verdict. And when the OJ Simpson photoshopped picture showed up I just about lost it. It doesn't really matter what that woman did or didn't do. She was probably a terribly mother, she possibly killed her daughter and she was definitely a pathological liar. But at the end of the day, the burden of proof lies with the prosecution and though there were dots every person who obsessively watched cable news seemed to put together placing her squarely in the guilty category, the evidence was primarily circumstantial. I know it seems to be a horrible case of injustice, but this case actually demonstrates how well our criminal justice system works.
More importantly, this one single case managed to outrage what seemed to be all of America (especially those with a uterus..ahem) and yet-as young Berghoef so eloquently said-where's the outrage over a genocide in Africa? Where's the outrage over a country's people starving?
Makes.me.crazy. And makes me wonder if this whole mess of country with its cable news obsessed culture deserves to collapse upon it's morbidly obese selves.
Wedding plans are progressing, I guess. There has been drama because even a wedding with only 12 people attending-including the two people getting married-has to have some sort of drama. Number one reason why our original plan involved a courthouse and not revealing to anyone we got married. I'm starting to get way more excited about the Vermont party as a date is pretty much set and it looks like some good people from Michigan and Chicago are going to make the trip. Which is awesome. I love showing off Vermont.
Next weekend we embark on our annual pilgrimage to Chicago for the Pitchfork Music Festival where it will either be blisteringly hot or pouring down rain or perfect. There will be hipsters and fashion and good food (though this year I will NOT get the pad thai. I feel like I dodged a bullet last year as Xtina ended up missing the last 2 days due to what was most likely food poisoning. Shudder) and most importantly Animal Collective and Neko Case and Fleet Foxes and Ariel Pink and Woods and The Dismemberment Plan and Kurt Vile and OFWGKTA. PLUS there's the Logan Square farmers market and maybe hopefully Lula's for brunch and possibly a small gathering on a rooftop and a reunion of Poe and Peter and a pigface for me from Girl and the Goat.
It's gonna be so sweet.
I came thiiiis close to defriending every single person who commented on/were upset by the Casey Anthony verdict. And when the OJ Simpson photoshopped picture showed up I just about lost it. It doesn't really matter what that woman did or didn't do. She was probably a terribly mother, she possibly killed her daughter and she was definitely a pathological liar. But at the end of the day, the burden of proof lies with the prosecution and though there were dots every person who obsessively watched cable news seemed to put together placing her squarely in the guilty category, the evidence was primarily circumstantial. I know it seems to be a horrible case of injustice, but this case actually demonstrates how well our criminal justice system works.
More importantly, this one single case managed to outrage what seemed to be all of America (especially those with a uterus..ahem) and yet-as young Berghoef so eloquently said-where's the outrage over a genocide in Africa? Where's the outrage over a country's people starving?
Makes.me.crazy. And makes me wonder if this whole mess of country with its cable news obsessed culture deserves to collapse upon it's morbidly obese selves.
Wedding plans are progressing, I guess. There has been drama because even a wedding with only 12 people attending-including the two people getting married-has to have some sort of drama. Number one reason why our original plan involved a courthouse and not revealing to anyone we got married. I'm starting to get way more excited about the Vermont party as a date is pretty much set and it looks like some good people from Michigan and Chicago are going to make the trip. Which is awesome. I love showing off Vermont.
Next weekend we embark on our annual pilgrimage to Chicago for the Pitchfork Music Festival where it will either be blisteringly hot or pouring down rain or perfect. There will be hipsters and fashion and good food (though this year I will NOT get the pad thai. I feel like I dodged a bullet last year as Xtina ended up missing the last 2 days due to what was most likely food poisoning. Shudder) and most importantly Animal Collective and Neko Case and Fleet Foxes and Ariel Pink and Woods and The Dismemberment Plan and Kurt Vile and OFWGKTA. PLUS there's the Logan Square farmers market and maybe hopefully Lula's for brunch and possibly a small gathering on a rooftop and a reunion of Poe and Peter and a pigface for me from Girl and the Goat.
It's gonna be so sweet.
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