Supporters of the Warren Memorial Library are planning to rally Saturday in an attempt to keep the library open.
Starting at Riverbank Park, the group Friends of the Warren Memorial Library will rally at 11 a.m. on a march to the Main Street library in support of saving the institution, which library board members say will close no later than May 1.
The same day, the board is holding the first of three focus group meetings to which it has invited elected officials, local artists and area businesspeople to attend and discuss the future of the library building and programs that may be offered there.
Despite the fact that the board has said the library is closing and the building is not being sold, patrons will not give up their efforts to save it.
A group has organized and started weekly meetings to discuss a strategy for saving the library that they, their children, and, for some, even their parents, grew up with. They’ve launched a Web site, www.friendsofwarrenlibrary.giving.officelive.com, to support their cause.
According to Kim Carignan, a member of the group, a fundraiser will be held in the near future at the Westbrook Recreation Center. Though they haven’t worked out details yet, Carignan said, they would like to raise money to put back in the Warren Memorial Foundation – the endowment that funds the library – in order to keep it open.
Rene Daniel, a member of the library board, said he believes that, according to the endowment’s mission statement, it does not accept donations and the board is not allowed to raise money to support it.
That’s the answer to a question a lot of regular patrons have raised since the board announced the library would be closing due to the effect of the stock market fall in this economic downturn.
“There’s still time,” Carignan said about putting money backing the endowment to save the library. “The No. 1 goal is to keep the library where it is.”
And if the board won’t accept the money – which Daniel said he believed is likely – Carignan said the patrons plan to open the library in the Wescott Junior High School building, which will be open as soon as students begin attending the new middle school in the spring of 2010.
Daniel said a decision has already been made as to where the library’s collection will go. He would not reveal where the collection is going because he wanted the recipient to make the announcement. He reiterated that the endowment will continue to be used for arts and education, as it was intended to be used, and that the building and property the library sits on will not be sold.
Daniel also said he understands the anger patrons still have about the library closing. He said the board was disappointed, too, but has been discussing it for a while and has already had to accept the library’s fate.
“We’ve gone through the grieving process,” he said. “You have to allow the others to go through.”
Still, for those, like Carignan, who used to meet with friends at the library as a teenager, whose mother, as an immgrant, learned English by taking out its books, and whose children use the programs on a weekly basis now, it’s not a fate they’re willing to accept.
“The board underestimated the citizens of Westbrook,” Carignan said.
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