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Chris Wysocki
Caldwell, NJ
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Hey! I've moved to He's Pretty Fly For A Jersey Guy.
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Saturday, 07 August 2010
Camden NJ: Close the libraries, give the mayor's cronies big fat raises
Camden, NJ is one of our states poorest towns. Like everywhere else in New Jersey they're facing a budget shortfall. Curiously they've chosen to plug the hole by shutting down their 3 public libraries.
This in a city where most residents don't own a computer and some of the public schools don't even have librarians. The public libraries serve a vital purpose and their demise will most certainly have a negative impact on the 150,000 people who use them every year.
Camden Mayor Dana Redd has asked all departments in the city to cut costs by nearly one-fourth. Even police and firefighters are bracing for layoffs, though none has been announced yet.
The library received $935,000 from the city and $88,000 from the state last year.
This year, the library asked the city for $823,000 and considered the 12 percent reduction a way to share in the sacrifice, interim library director Jerome Szpila said.
But the mayor offered only $281,666 - nearly a 70 percent cut. It was too little to qualify for any state assistance, library board member and activist Frank Fulbrook said.
The only thing the library could do was close, Fulbrook said.
Well something's gotta give, right?
Wrong.
Back in February Mayor Dana Redd pushed through whopping salary increases for her top aides — from $71,000 to $150,000 per year. The City Attorney and Mayor's Counsel also received generous raises. When the city council rubber-stamped her action they assured the public the higher salaries wouldn't affect the city budget.
As if.
No wonder Mayor Redd hasn't got anything left for the libraries. It all went to her cronies in city government. I'm sure I don't have to remind anyone that every official in Camden, elected or appointed, has a "D" after their name. Democrats pretend to care about the little people, but only after their sticky fingers have scooped up a sufficiently large piece of the pie.
Szpila already is starting to work on plans for what to do with the 187,000 books and artifacts the library has acquired since it opened in 1904 with a $100,000 gift from Andrew Carnegie. They would have to be sold, donated or destroyed, he said.
There is only one word for a travesty of this magnitude.
Unconscionable.
Posted at 09:27 by Chris Wysocki
[/democrats]
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