Unity Library Set to Reopen

By Dylan Marsh
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
UNITY — The Unity Free Library will be reopening its doors on Saturday, June 4.

This comes after roughly a year of closure due to legal trouble that had affected the library’s budget. “The library was in complete disarray. We had to reshelve everything, it took about six weeks. We also came in to get the computers up and running to go into the software and see what had happened,” said Rhoda Staff, interim Director for the Unity Free Library.

Since Staff has been able to access the software for the library, she has found that from May 2019 to closing in July 2021, only 69 items had been cataloged. Typically, around 2,200 items would be cataloged in this time. The library also had to be rearranged to be more accessible to patrons and each piece of media was taken off shelves, cataloged, and reorganized before being shelved.

Staff had also gone to a town meeting to request $10,000 be added to the library budget to offer passes for patrons to locations like State Parks and the Community Center in Claremont. The money would also go towards obtaining speakers to come to the library to help create a draw. This would include returning speakers like award winning wildlife photographer Peter Christoph. They also intend to continue their Coding For Kids program, which saw 17 kids sign up before the start of the pandemic. According to Staff, a vote was done at the town meeting which approved the additional funds, but she has had difficulty receiving any of that money.

Staff had been the Director of the Unity Free Library from December 2016 until April 2019. She is currently filling in as Acting Director until the new librarian can be adequately trained and take over.

During the reopening process, the McDevitt family had also donated six new bookshelves that were painted and are now being used in the library.

In July 2021, the town’s Selectboard, and members of the Unity Free Library Board of Trustees, took control of operations of the library after concerns were raised about mismanagement. As a result, the Selectboard closed the public library until a complete forensic audit could be done. Treasury oversight was relinquished to the town and the library’s finances were transferred to a new bank. The Selectboard and Board of Trustees also chose to replace the Trustees’ board Chair and Treasurer Gordon Brann.

Legal action was then taken against Brann, when Trustees Sally Teague and Jedidiah Stopyro claimed that he had withheld financial documents required to complete the forensic audit. The court however had no legal recourse to have Brann turn in the documents because town statutes only enforce town officials and not private citizens. Draft minutes from a meeting for the Library Trustees state that Teague had paid over $42,000 in invoices for legal and accounting fees using library accounts to pay for audits.

Board of Trustees Member Debrah Bazell Lahey took legal action against the town of Unity Selectboard, as well as Teague, demanding the library be reopened. A complaint against Teague had been filed claiming that she had used library accounts to pay for fees without consulting the Board Of Trustees and that the town should be held responsible for the cost. Leahy’s complaint also demanded the town pay for her legal fees. In an email to the Eagle Times, Board of Trustees Chair Sarah Finney explained that of Leahy’s complaints, only one levied against the town in order to pay legal fees remained at the time of court proceedings. The judge ruled that the town had not acted in bad faith and would not be required to pay Leahy’s legal fees. Teague has since resigned from the Board Of Trustees.

The library intends to try to keep up the things that are the most popular. Staff wants to remind patrons that, “If there is something someone wants all they have to do is ask and always check our website.” A link to the library website can be found on the Town of Unity website.