THE
HUNTERDON COUNTY NEWS |
TITLE: MELICK TRIES TO KILL BOOKMOBILE - "Everything has a lifespan"
DESCRIPTION:
Time: 11:47:57
HUNTERDON COUNTY - A vote came before the freeholder board yesterday evening regarding the Hunterdon County Library Bookmobile. The previous Freeholder Board had authorized the library to go out to bid on a new Bookmobile, the counties all terrain travel vehicle supplying books to a municipality near you in a single bound, as the old Mobile had reached the grand old age of 17 and needed replacing. Usually once the authorization to bid had been confirmed through the board the actual approval of the process is a formality with Purchasing Director John Davenport whipping though his list before you can count 3 , but not yesterday.
For some reason Freeholder George Melick decided to put the bulls eye on the BookMobile, that god awful invention designed to encourage children to do that ever frightening thing, GASP - YES THAT'S RIGHT - READ.
The bookmobile is not cheap, with all the bells and whistles and special chassis etc… , it costs in the neighborhood of 150K fully outfitted. However the library does not abuse these vehicles and as stated above the last one had been around 17 years and on that formula the Sinister of all evils, BOOKMOBILE, costs about $300 a month not including the driver and upkeep which fall under the library's budget.
Melick, who admitted that he remembered the BookMobile being a positive thing in his youth, the bookmobile for those of you who don't know, has been around since 1928, stated "Everything has a lifespan. People are being forced to move out of here because their taxes are too high." And that's the fault of the bookmobile??? which has been around for 84 years or is it possibly the swelling county budget which will topple over 100 million this year most likely and has gone up the most in county history under the watch of the long standing Freeholder that is driving people beyond the borders????? That dog gone bookmobile must be the problem.
Now thankfully the freeholder board has a few other members and it was well appreciated when Director Peterson spoke up and stated, "It is important to make the dissemination of information as readily available as possible because that is what keeps a free people free. If I'm going to err I'm going to err on the side of keeping information as readily available as possible." Thank goodness.
Freeholder Melick was not without an idea however. He wants to take the LINK buses and use them to transport people to the library instead of bringing the library to them via the bookmobile as the LINK buses are barely used. "god forbid someone has a new idea, ohh but I forgot this is government," he states.
He did not suggest getting rid of the LINK buses as a waste of money and to his credit the LINK is underused, under advertised and how to use it is not clear to most - DO YOU KNOW HOW IT WORKS?? Didn't thinks so. If we are counting pennies and thinking about ridding ourselves of that demon BookMobile in an attempt to curb spending, the LINK should probably be the first thing scrapped as a blatant waste of money. In a moment of humor Melick even admitted that we should put silhouette cut outs in the windows of the Link so at least people would think it is being used.
The bottom line is there is probably a lot of fat in the county budget. Yesterday it was tossed out in the air that the requested capital projects budget is over 40 million - IS THE NEW COUNTY CLERKS OFFICE DONE YET???????? Some county building projects do seem to take an unreasonable amount of time - Emergency Services Building?? But to zero in on something like the BookMobile, a device that brings joy to the eyes of children just exploring the world of reading and to seniors who are in our assisted living facilities unable to leave but still enjoying the gift of reading, just seems like paltry political grandstanding.
After much discussion the Freeholders took a vote and it turned out 4-1 against Melick. The long standing tradition of the BOOKMOBILE will live on for hopefully another 84 years, minimum, and that is a good thing for all.