Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Budget Blade Bedevils Bibliotheca





A fifteen percent cut. $100,000. That’s the hit the Plattsburgh Public Library has taken in the past. Despite that cut in funding, the library is busier than ever. Its patronage ranges from students to working professionals to retirees and those on fixed incomes. Look at the usage recently across the spectrum: books, of course, but DVDs, research materials, and the public access computers. Sometimes you have to stand in line, even though the clerks and librarians are working as fast as they can. But the budget ax is poised to chop again. Cutting a community service when it’s proven its worth is, to borrow a phrase, highly illogical.

If you value your public library, please make it known. Don’t wait for the moment when you need its services and you find PPL darkened, the doors locked. Email or call:


Mayor Donald Kasprzak: mayor@cityofplattsburgh-ny.gov 563-7701

City Councilors: email addresses listed at this link

Press-Republican / Bob Grady, Editor: letters@pressrepublican.com (If you use the link, scroll down to the email form conveniently hidden below. Lousy layout, eh?) 565-1420

Lake Champlain Weekly / Caroline Kehne, Editor: editorial@studleyprinting.com 563-1414

WIRY Radio: wiry@wiry.com 563-1340 (Excluding Ducky Drake. Duck him.)

WPTZ-TV Channel 5: feedback@wptz.com 561-5555 (This one is a long shot. PPL ain’t located in Vermont.)

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