Trustees dig deep to keep BPL open Sundays
Copley gem would have closed on 5 days
The possibility that the Boston Public Library would seal the heavy doors at the Copley Square landmark on five upcoming Sundays in a money-saving move has spurred two trustees to take extraordinary action: they have opened their own wallets to keep the library open.
Board Chairman Jeffrey B. Rudman and member A. Raymond Tye have volunteered to contribute $27,500 each to make up for a proposed $55,000 budget cut. Rudman is a Charlestown resident and senior partner at the Boston law firm WilmerHale. Tye is a philanthropist and retired liquor distributor.
City officials accepted the offer immediately and said the Back Bay library will remain open as usual - including its Sunday afternoon hours from October to June.
"I think it's very extraordinary these two individuals stepped up to the plate," Mayor Thomas M. Menino said yesterday in an interview. "I have to applaud them."
Library President Amy Ryan said she was overwhelmed by the gesture. For months she has been attempting to preserve as many library services as possible while cutting library costs by $1.3 million.
The proposed budget preserved hours of service in the library system's 26 neighborhood branches, but called for the main branch to close for five Sundays.
"This was fabulous," Ryan said about the contributions that averted any cutback in library hours. "They just jumped forward with it."
Tye, whose donations have helped rebuild churches and fund medical treatment for Iraqi children, said in an interview yesterday that he felt making sure the library could stay open was crucial during the recession.
"Today, when a lot of people unfortunately are at home, the library becomes a place for them to spend time and grow," he said. "That's the way our country's going to grow."
Rudman, who has served on the volunteer board of trustees since 2004, said he followed Tye's lead and is happy to help.
"We've got through this crisis without losing any service at the branches; the only place that was threatened was Copley," Rudman said. "We didn't want that. We didn't want Copley to close on any Sunday. We want the library there for people winter, spring, summer and fall."
The proposed cutbacks that spurred their contributions are another sign of the severe distress government agencies are facing, including the Massachusetts Turnpike, which turned off the lights on the Zakim Bridge to cut $5,000 per month in costs. The Turnpike is weighing whether to accept $15,000 offered by one of the bridge's designers to turn the lights back on.
"We're doing a full review of all offers of donations and contributions, and our goal is to turn the lights back on as quickly as we can and at the same time come up with a long-term plan to keep the lights on permanently," Turnpike spokesman Colin Durrant said yesterday.
At the Boston Public Library, Ryan said she cut the overall budget from $31.2 million to $29.9 million.
She said decisions were made based on four priorities: supporting learning through programs such as early literacy, homework help and adult education; maintaining access to services with highest demand, including Internet access, collections, and hours of service; keeping libraries as community meeting places; and offering services that help library users weather the recession, including career information and workshops on resume writing.
Donovan Slack can be reached at dslack@globe.com. 