Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
"War of words over Shutesbury library plan; Tiny town split by projected cost" by Jenna Russell | Globe Staff, March 25, 2012
SHUTESBURY - A push to build a new, 5,800-square-foot library, a source of smoldering tension among the town’s 1,700 residents for years, has fed bitter, acrimonious debate in recent months between supporters who say the need for the $3.5 million project is obvious and opponents who call it too big and costly....
Townspeople weary of the drawn-out saga have been startled by another unlikely development: A two-minute video made by volunteers last month to boost fund-raising for the new library has been viewed more than 30,000 times on YouTube, attracting international attention, $30,000 in donations, and support from celebrities including comedian Paula Poundstone and novelist Margaret Atwood....
Mayhem is not something that comes to mind in these hills, where many residents still live on shaded dirt roads and keep chickens.
Mayhem, huh?
The Tudor-style library, on the edge of the quiet, pine-fringed town common across from a white clapboard church, is a wireless Internet hub in a town where many are still forced to rely on dial-up; it is also the home of a fishing pole loan program....
To Bob Groves, a leading opponent of the library proposal, driving nine miles to Amherst to visit the library there is as routine as driving out of town to buy his groceries. He said Shutesbury has undergone a “somewhat stressful’’ demographic shift with the arrival of highly educated, well-off transplants, many of whom work at nearby UMass Amherst.
His sympathies, he says, lie with longtime residents less able to afford the proposed tax increase, which would have cost the owner of a $284,000 home from $85 to $120 a year....
They don't call it Taxachusetts for nothing!
Of course, they can afford it out there.
“I feel like a lot of the ways America behaves, with regard to overspending and consumption, are crystallized in this little town,’’ said the builder, a UMass graduate who specializes in historic restoration. “I’m interested in keeping values of Yankee frugality. . . . I’m not against the library; I’m against a massive facility beyond our ability to pay.’’
An unused 19th-century building on the town common could be restored for library use, Groves said. The installation of a $50 wireless Internet router could turn the current town hall basement into a haven for frustrated laptop users.
Most frustrating, he said, is the disregard that has been shown for opponents’ view. “The people who want the library will not take no for an answer,’’ he said.
In Massachusetts?
Tired of the ire, proponents have shifted their focus to fund-raising. If they can collect $1 million by June 30 - to cover what the tax increase would have generated - the project can qualify for $2 million in state funding.
State has nothing better to do with $2 million?
The fund drive is a long shot, “but crazier things have happened,’’ library director Mary Anne Antonellis said. “It’s the best thing for the town to bring down the tax impact, so people who are opposed will feel better about it.’’
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Optimism has surged with the success of the video, which makes no reference to the controversy.
In it, adults and children hold up handmade signs listing reasons why they need a new library, while library storyteller Julie Stepanek provides the soundtrack, playing her ukulele and singing “Everybody Let’s Jump,’’ an upbeat tune she wrote for story hour.
Filmed in three hours by Lindsay Van Dyke, a friend and colleague of Emily Bloch, a mother of two young children and a supporter of the new library project who volunteered her time, it has drawn donations from as far away as Singapore. “[M]ade me cry ACTUAL HUMAN TEARS OF HAPPINESS,’’ tweeted comedian John Hodgman of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.’’
“What it says to me, that people are moved to give money to a town they’ve never heard of and a library they’ll never use, is that people personally value their experiences in libraries,’’ said Bloch. “They see it as a social good that won’t just be for our town.’’
Hey, I'm not against libraries. I love books. I bought and read them when I should have been playing video games; however, I amm against divisive, agenda-pushing pos articles like this.
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