New director: ‘Exciting time ahead’ for town

Former head leaving to care for sick relative

CROMWELL » The town has a new library director.

Just two days after J. Druzilla Carter left the position, the Town Council Wednesday ratified the appointment of a new director of the Cromwell Belden Public Library

Kara Canney, a Wallingford native, comes to Cromwell from Trumbull, where she was the children’s librarian for the past 13 years.

“I was ready for a new challenge. Cromwell has an exciting time ahead,” Canney said after the council endorsed her selection.

Canney’s husband, Patrick, works for HB Communications in North Haven. The couple have two children: a son, Wesley, 9, and a daughter, Mary-Alice, 7.

Canney wasted no time settling into her new job. She was working in the library before the council met in the late afternoon. Once the council voted unanimously to endorse her appointment, she went right back to work.

Carter had held the director’s position for the past eight months after taking over from the longtime director, Eileen Branciforte. However, a family responsibil-

ity caused Carter to tender her resignation.

“I’m going to take care of my aunt,” who is engaged in a fight to overcome a significant health issue, Carter said in an exit interview.

It was difficult to leave, Carter acknowledged.

“This is a wonderful library with a phenomenal staff,” she said.

And she was brimming with ideas of directions in which she wanted the library to go, Carter acknowledged. But with her aunt ill, “I don’t have enough energy for both things,” Carter said, “and family comes first.”

“She took care of me when I was a kid,” Carter said. “And now it’s time for me to return the favor.”

The library is also on the verge of undergoing an expansion, funded in part by a $1 million state grant. Carter was particularly excited about using a portion of the new space as an expanded children’s library. Town officials want it used to create a meeting room instead, however.

Whichever way that issue goes, it’s now Canney’s concern.

“This library really does see a huge cross-section of the community: lots of teenagers, lots of kids and lots of senior citizens,” Carter said.

And the library also attracts a surprising number of Middletown residents — mostly because they can park more easily in Cromwell than at the Russell Library in Middletown, Carter said. “You get an amazing cross-section of the community here, which is what a library should be,” Carter continued. “It’s a place for people to gather.”

Carter was particularly pleased by the cooperative and collaborative relationship she fashioned with Amy Saada, the Senior Center/human services director. “I loved working with Amy,” she said.

Cromwell Belden Public Library