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On April 2, the finance board decided to cut the $350,000 funding Fairfield’s taxpayers give annually to the Pequot Library in a 5-4 vote. The board made the cut as part of more than $2.6 million in trims to overall spending in an effort to bring down Fairfield’s tax increase.
“There is no shortage of culture for our citizens to enjoy. We all appreciate the value of the services provided by the Pequot Library,” finance vice chair Robert Bellitto said Monday. “However, that value is greatly diminished if people cannot afford to live here."
The amount represents more than a third of the privately run library’s total budget, and library officials warned that Pequot might have had to close without the funding. The library’s board of trustees and many volunteers, patrons and partner organizations spoke out Monday to have the funding restored.
“To have 100 percent of our budget cut within a 24-hour window was completely unfair,” Pequot Board of Directors President Bill Russell said Monday.
The finance board also rejected a request for $53,261 in new funding for the Fairfield Senior Center, which would have been used to hire a full-time director in January. Currently, Human and Social Services Director Teresa Giegengack manages the center while also running the rest of the HSS department.
Giegengack and the Human Services Commission said Monday that although demand for the senior center’s services has increased in recent years, Fairfield is one of the only towns in the area without a full-time director for its town-run senior center.
“It is an asset to the town to serve all sorts of constituencies,” Human Services Commission chair Selma Cohen said Monday. “And the growing population of seniors in Fairfield are entitled, I believe, to have that kind of benefit when they choose to stay here.”
In the third appeal heard Monday night, Fairfield Counseling Services asked for the RTM to restore $8,750 in funding. The amount is 5 percent of its total funding from the town. The agency provides mental health services for residents of Fairfield and surrounding towns.
To overturn the finance board’s decision the appeals needed a two-thirds vote by the RTM. The Pequot Library and Fairfield Counseling Services both won their appeals, via margins of 43-3 and 34-14, respectively. But a 26-22 majority voted against the senior center’s request.
The Representative Town Meeting will hold its final vote on the town’s full budget May 6. After Monday’s appeals, it cannot add funding to any more departments; the board can only cut funding from the Board of Finance’s budget next week.
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