Library Trustees Back Ramsdell State Grant Bid in 3-2 Vote

GREAT BARRINGTON -- March 9, 2023, Great Barrington Library Trustees voted 3-2-1 to recommend the town sign a state construction grant letter of intent for Ramsdell Library, with a deadline of April 28. The split vote came after Library Director Samara Moriarty cautioned that the grant's multi-year process and 40 percent local match requirement, on grants up to $5 million, would not address Ramsdell's urgent electrical and roof needs quickly enough, while longtime trustee Patrick countered that "you miss a hundred percent of the shots you don't take." In a second 3-2-1 vote, trustees redirected the library's Canopy streaming-video budget to the TicketKeeper museum-pass platform at $600 annually, citing that only 87 of the library's 7,000-plus cardholders were using Canopy to exhaust its $160 monthly cap. The meeting ended with the trustee identified as Patrick announcing he would not seek re-election at the end of his term.