05/28/2026
**Comments have been turned off, as much as we appreciate the community's overwhelming and enthusiastic support on this, when the defense of the library turns to personal attacks against the dissenting parties, we have to shut it down. Please come out to vote next Tuesday June 2nd from noon-8pm**
📚We would like to publicly respond to this ad in the Shopper. Though the accusations are truly concerning, that does not mean there is truth to these concerns. We were anticipating something of this sort as two individuals from the community have been working together to actively look for issues with our library. We are proud to say these accusations are the best they can find because we run a fairly tight ship, despite being merely human. 📚
To each point:
* The library is asking to double the library tax levy only. We do not control or contribute to any other part of the tax bill. If this proposal passes, the library’s tax levy will still only contribute to less than 2% of any given property tax bill in our effected area.
* To our knowledge we are not in violation of any of New York State’s open meeting laws, though if there was a more specific accusation, we would be happy to look into it and correct any oversight. Our library staff is human, the director is new to this position, the last director came in during one of the hardest times in our country’s recent history and our board is an ever-changing group of unpaid volunteers who does their best with what they have. As always, if you think we are doing something illegal, unethical or dangerous, we want to know and we want to remedy that. Such a broad claim does not help us in that mission.
* The $81,000 for security at this time is estimated based on an anticipated increase from the current cost of security. $78,000 per year. This was added to this year’s budget after our levy last year had already been proposed and passed. It is currently paid for by investment funds and needed to be added as critical incidents continued to rise. We do not have staff that are trained and comfortable dealing with many of the incidents we experience at the library every day. This addition of security has been greatly appreciated by staff and also voiced by many of our regular patrons. Since January of this year, our security officers have dealt with over 100 small incidents, which are usually simple. For example, someone violating a policy, stops once confronted by the officer. These incidents prior to a security officer would often escalate rather than conclude, despite our staff being trained on de-escalation. In addition these officers have dealt with 23 (and counting) major incidents. Things like, public indecency, and drug use on the property during library hours. While Bath PD has been awesome, and we appreciate them for their help on more serious incidents, they are not stationed here, and have so much on their plates already. They cannot be here as fast as an on-site officer, but an on-site security officer CAN hold things over and manage the situation until police can arrive. Their exact trainings are not available to the public because that creates a potential safety breach for those wishing to work around the system. These issues were defined at our budget hearing. Additionally other possible measures were absolutely considered and the best option was Securitas. It is the same company used by our county offices and came highly recommended by several professionals in the criminal justice and security officer fields, as well as by people who have used and continue to use their services.
* While we have heard both great and areas needing improvement about the café, we feel and continue to feel that Chapters Café does contribute to our library’s mission and vision. Not only does it make the library a more welcoming space, it is innovative, responsive and unique. It brings in people from all over and we hope to continue keeping it open. The payroll expense associated with just the café for this budget is approximately $35,114 for the year including all wages, taxes and fees. For the first time, we can confidently expect the non-payroll café expenses to be heavily outweighed by the cafe’s income next year. This is due to new and innovative direction we have taken to handle variable expenses and by partnering out with vendors to cut costs. When the book nook closed, many people were upset, it was a fun part of our library that we won’t be able to get back in the same way due to fair labor standards laws, coupled with staffing and space limitations. At that time a decision was made to keep one of these two, and the café was chosen because it had a better chance to reach self-sustainability, a more robust clientele, and a more difficult to repurpose space. For these reasons we hope to continue moving the café towards a model that is entirely self-sustaining and these past two years we have made leaps and bounds in that direction. We would hate see that progress and those services lost just as it starts to get its wings. The breakdown of payroll for the café was not a matter of deceit or a lack of transparency, it was to avoid further confusion surrounding our budget. Part of keeping people informed, is providing the easiest to follow version of our budget, but detailed answers are available to those willing to ask. All we ask is patience as we get that information around for you.
* This is a very big accusation considering it is not true. What one person considers comprehensive and what another does is a matter of opinion. It is the opinion of our board that we did in-fact evaluate compensation fairly and comprehensively for our area. This includes benchmarking with other libraries and non-profits in our area. Our board is comprised of professionals and residents in Bath. Compared to other similar employers and similar roles in and around Bath, the $85,300 increase reflects $2,500 for payroll merit bonuses. This was a line item on past budgets that was eliminated. When discussing reinstating this item, the idea was to use this money as a bonus for staff going above and beyond, or helping us to find qualified talent. It is there as an option to be used not a requirement to use. $65,000 is what it will cost the library to add insurance for our full-time staff, this is a discounted rate for which the library is eligible because it has never offered employer paid health insurance before. The last item totaling to $17,800 is the absolute maximum we can expect it to cost to offer a 403(b) retirement plan to full timers. This line includes contribution match up to $200/ month per full-time staff member, and the fees to manage the account. Given current pay rates for our full-time staff, we also do not anticipate most can afford to maximize this investment and the cost could potentially be lower. These benefits, though they could add to as much as $85,300 next year may also come in lower but should not cost any higher. Because we will be offering these options to staff for the first time, the board felt it made sense to estimate high to reflect the possible cost and avoid underestimating. After our first year offering these benefits we will have an even better idea of what they will actually cost and the line items can be better estimated and may potentially go down based on usage.
* The last library director, LeighAnn Rumsey did so much great work getting our library to where it needed to be. Unfortunately, when she began at the height of COVID-19 in October of 2020 she was gobsmacked to find the state of the library internally. She spent her 5+ years getting everything in order from paperwork, to programming restructuring, to a staffing restructuring and beginning a collection overhaul. When she started she was a Bath school district resident, she has since moved to be closer to family. That does not change her impact or her care for our library and our community. Our new library director, Jami Long who is a current Bath School District resident believes firmly in our library, as well as this request and is actively advocating to increase her own taxes because she would rather pay more to support our library than let much of the last director’s progress fall to the wayside. Ultimately, the decision to make this proposal does not fall solely to either director. The current director as well as the board, most of whom are also residents, contributed to and worked together on this proposal with Director Rumsey and Director Long (when she was still the Assistant Director). The past director did increase wages, most of which were mandated by minimum wage raises anyway, and all of which were a shared decision between the director and the board.
We cannot tell you how to vote, and we wouldn’t want to. Our library is and continues to be a source of good and a resource for all who enter here. With that said, it is incredibly easy to wait until the last moment to run a smear campaign behind an anonymous tagline, without giving our library enough time to rebut in the same format.
No matter your stance, our stance is to ask you to please come vote on June 2nd, and if you use our library, love our library or need our services, please understand we cannot continue to serve our community to the degree we do now, without your support.
If you would like further information about the library budget, how it is calculated and how it will be used, please call 607-776-4613 or email [email protected]. Jami wants to answer your questions, because we all want you to make an informed choice at the polls, no matter what that choice looks like for you.
