Library’s funding remains on hold

Residents want Lower Saucon officials to ‘quit screwing around,’ board leader says

The page-turner centered on the future funding of the Hellertown Area Library continues, seemingly without a storybook ending in sight.

Negotiations continue, according to officials from the library and Lower Saucon Township Council. That council in January voted 4-1 — with Priscilla deLeon dissenting — not to renew its agreement with the library, an agreement that had been pegged at $500,000 over five years.

Instead, council voted to make a $50,000 donation to the library and contribute another $50,000 to Southern Lehigh Public Library. Neither library has accepted the money.

Ken Solt, president of the Hellertown Area Library

board, said Wednesday that Lower Saucon — which, with Hellertown, has funded the library since 2014 — recently pledged in a letter to allocate $82,000 to the library through Dec. 31; the $50,000 contribution plus $32,000, which the council calculates is the amount of state funding for residents.

Come 2023, according to Solt and minutes from township council’s May meeting, Lower Saucon would stop being part of the library.

Township residents continue to have access to the Hellertown library services and programs for free, according to Solt. A majority of residents who have spoken out at council meetings have urged the township to keep funding the library.

“They don’t have any interest in going someplace else,” Solt said of the township’s residents. “They wish that the township would fund the Hellertown Area Library and quit screwing around.”

B. Lincoln Treadwell Jr., Lower Saucon’s attorney, said most members of council prefer the library become a regional learning hub, extending beyond the Saucon Valley as a way to be part of a larger library system, instead of remaining a smaller, independent library. He noted that Bucks

County’s libraries operate as a county library system.

“Everybody involved would need to discuss it, but I think Hellertown [library] has said they are not interested,” Treadwell said of regionalization.

Treadwell also said township officials are discussing library services with other parties, but declined to provide specifics.

Solt said the library board has been seeking clarifications from the township and wanted to be on the agenda for council’s June 15

meeting. “There’s been no response,” he said.

The library board is also concerned about a possible lawsuit against the library by the township if access to

service is denied to Lower Saucon residents.

“We don’t want to get sued is what it comes down to,” Solt said.

Meanwhile, Lower Saucon officials renewed an earlier effort with the attempted donation of $50,000 to Southern Lehigh Public Library. Officials from the township, library and Southern Lehigh School District are in discussions.

The matter came up during a June 13 Southern Lehigh School Board meeting, since the school district provides funding to the public library. It is set Monday to vote on an approximate $70,000 allocation to the library as part of its 2022-23 budget, school Superintendent Michael Mahon said.

But Bruce Eames, president of the Southern Lehigh library board, said the board doesn’t meet again until July 19, and no decision has been made regarding Lower Saucon’s proposed funding.

“We have made it publicly known that we got sucked into this thing,” said Eames, who earlier this year stressed the library wasn’t looking to expand.

Treadwell said the library didn’t turn down the money, “they put it on hold.”

Hellertown library’s board is scheduled to meet Tuesday, Solt said. Its meetings are livestreamed; the link is available from the library’s website and social media page.

While the library has yet to accept compensation from the township, Hellertown officials this year approved $75,000 in emergency funding on top of nearly $60,000 the borough paid for 2022, for a total of around $135,000. Library officials sought about $107,000 from Lower Saucon, meaning the two communities’ outlay was to be nearly $170,000 this year.

Solt said library director Noelle Kramer is trying to be “extra frugal” with operations, and that no programs or services have been cut.

In another development, Jennifer Zavacky, who served as Lower Saucon council liaison to the library, announced her resignation last month.

Elected last fall, Zavacky cited personal and professional commitments.

The Hellertown library serves the borough and Lower Saucon Township, but it does not receive funding from the Saucon Valley School District, which, like the library, encompasses both communities. The district population is around 16,500.