WILTON — Selectmen challenged the Wilton Free Public Library director Tuesday to get the community involved in raising funds for the library.

“We thought about what we can do to help the library,” Selectman Thomas Saviello said.

Each board member is giving $50 from his own pocket to encourage the library to do some local fundraising. The five board members have $250 for the library if a total of $750 is raised this year.

“For every $3 raised, we’ll give $1,” Saviello told David Olson, library director, at the Tuesday meeting. “Make us pay … that should be your theme.”

Saviello offered examples of other libraries such as those in Phillips and Rangeley who hold silent auctions or wheels of fortune in the library.

“Phillips raised $4,500 with the auction and it draws more people to go to the library,” he said.

Olson responded that he would take it to the next library board meeting and take it seriously.

“It’s fantastic that you support us but we do raise a lot of money,” he said, referring to grants received.

Grants or one-person gifts won’t count in the challenge. It has to be something new and different involving several people.

The challenge comes on top of split recommendation votes by the selectmen and Finance Committee on a warrant article to raise $108,650 for the library. 

The town report states the selectmen vote was 2-3 to recommend raising the amount. The Finance Committee vote was 0-7-1.

“They do want to help us out but they want us to do fundraising we haven’t done before,” Olson said Wednesday. “We raise more money than other libraries around here.”

The fundraising he described as more professional and formal such as grants to keep the library available for residents.

On average, the number of people who visited the library in 2012 was more than 13,000, with more than 2,000 there to use computers. The average number using the library is about 60 people per day, he said.

When the board reviewed the $108,650 requested from taxpayers, Board Chairman Terry Brann said he spoke for the people who came to him about the town’s budget. 

During budget sessions, Brann suggested charging a $1 fee to take out a book but Olson told him it wouldn’t be a free library.

“Taxpayers are already paying $108,000 … how it that free?” Brann said Wednesday.

Town officials and committees have worked very hard the past few years to figure out a budget that lowers the burden on taxpayers, Kathy Shoaps, finance committee member, said of their vote.

The library is dear to her, she added. She previously served on its board.

The library tries to stay independent but it is dependent on the town, she said. It receives funding from the town but is not a town department.

“The town has supported the library for 112 years,” Olson said.

Shoaps sees a need for an ongoing discussion on what can be done.

The committee visited other town departments, such as the fire, highway and parks and recreation, to understand their needs and together seek solutions to keeping the budget down, she said.

“Most departments have made sacrifices,” she said. “That’s not to say the library hasn’t but they haven’t made it known. Maybe there needs to be more open communication.”

The $108,650 requested is $25 less than last year’s amount.

Ultimately, the decision is up to voters during the annual town meeting June 10, Brann said.

“I represent and voice what people come and say to me,” he said. “I believe in the library but we need to find another way to finance it. Pretty consistently, people say it’s about either putting food on their tables or paying their taxes.”

abryant@sunjournal.com

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