Library trustees look to increase employee hours
By Caitlyn Kelleher JOURNAL REPORTER

"Benefits cost so much. We need to get the most

we can from benefited

positions."

- LORRAINE EMERSON,

SELECTMAN

Selectmen met with the Forbush Library Board of Trustees at their Monday, March 26, meeting, asking for adjustments in staffing hours in the future.

For the upcoming budget cycle the trustees are asking to increase the number of hours of the children's librarian and the adult services librarian to allow for more activities to be held at the library during weekend and evening hours. The plan is to add these hours mid-year so the budget is increased slowly.

"We agreed to phase in these increases," Trustee Chairman Walter Haney said.

Selectmen said they would like to see an increase in the number of hours for employees receiving health benefits, if those employees are not already working 30 to 40 hours a week.

"If we are going to have a benefited position it should be 30 hours a week," Selectman Chairwoman Lorraine Emerson said. "Benefits cost so much. We need to get the most we can from benefited positions."

The selectmen agreed that the number of hours filled with part-time employees could be reduced if the benefited employees were made full time.

Haney said that is the long-term goal of the department but that in this year of flux with library staffing it didn't make sense to do it now.

The trustees said one of the people who holds a parttime benefited position has been at the library for a long time and she does not want to work more hours. They said the employee's institutional knowledge is important at this time.

"This is a business," Selectman

"Benefits cost We need to we can from positions."

-

John Fairbanks said. "You want to turn on this poor person's dime or on the taxpayer's dime."

The trustees said the first step is to increase the hours of the children's and adult services librarians this budget year and then to look at the other employees when a new director is hired.

Selectmen agreed.

The trustees are asking the voters to approve two articles at the upcoming town meeting for money outside their operating budget.

The first article will be for $6,000 to add security cameras, put new locks on the building and repair or replace the furnaces.

The second article

will be to fund cost so much.

an exterior renovation.

The request

get the most

was approved at

from benefited a previous town

meeting but lost positions."

an "affirmation"

vote in the fall, LORRAINE EMERSON,

after it was deemed

SELECTMAN

the first vote was

invalid.

In other business:

+ Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School's Superintendent of Schools James Culkeen and Jeff Schutt, the Westminster representative to the school board, met with selectmen.

Westminster is being assessed $465,840, which is an increase of about $45,000 compared to last year's assessment. Culkeen said some of this is due to the increased need to hire more teachers, especially in the core areas of math and science, to deal with the rising student population. The increase is also part of the state-mandated minimum funding due to Westminster's increasing student population at the school.

+ Selectmen may consider raising building permit fees as a way to offset costs to the building departments. But they are waiting to speak Building Inspector Bob Thorell before approving the fees.

+ Selectmen and Advisory Board members discussed the possibility of hiring a consultant and working with the Department of Revenue to revise the job matrix, which determines the pay scales of the non-union employees, as well as to review the job descriptions.

The town officials said such discussions have been in the works for a number of years but now that the town hall has relocated and is open during the lunch hour it is time to address the issue.

"We could request DOR to do a management study, which they'll do for free," Fairbanks said.