There is a change of plans for one Ledyard Library facing an indefinite shutdown in the wake of the Connecticut budget battle.
Mayor Fred Allyn III decided the Gales Ferry Library will stay open, but it’s at the cost of cutting staff and hours at the facility and at Bill Library, Ledyard’s other library.
Allyn said he asked library director Gale Bradbury to make between $115,000 and $120,000 worth of savings.
That means substantially reducing part-time staff, Bradbury said, who has 18 part-time employees and might only be able to keep four.
“Very heartbreaking. These are all very good workers. They go above and beyond for the library. They do way more than the job calls for,” Bradbury said.
She’s also looking at eliminating some days the Gales Ferry Library is open and slashing hours at Bill Library.
Bradbury said the community rallied for the library, specifically the Gales Ferry District. She said they argued that closing that library would have violated the 99-year library lease the district made to the town in 1982.
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“It’s a huge relief. Once you close a building it does become difficult to reopen. I’m also looking at the value of what we have in that library. It’s not a duplicate of the collection (at Bill). We like to say we’re one library in two locations,” Bradbury said.
