LOWER SAUCON TWP., Pa. — Come next year, residents of Lower Saucon will have broader access to services at Hellertown Area Library, courtesy of a new agreement.
The 10-year deal, which Township Council approved Dec. 18, starts Jan. 1.
The township will pay HAL $117,596.40 a year across monthly installments of $9,799.70 to cover library operating costs.
That number is based on the township population of 11,094 — according to the 2020 U.S. Census — and a $10.64 per-capita rate.
The agreement also could come with up to a 3% payment increase annually, as well as one respective spot for Lower Saucon on the library board.
The motion passed 3-2, with councilmen Jason Banonis and Thomas Carocci opposed.
Township solicitor Steve Goudsouzian said the agreement would be “in essence, putting the township and the library back on a course where they’re working together moving forward.”
In October, Hellertown Borough Council approved its own 10-year funding agreement with HAL.
'Just very excited'
“We’re just very excited for our Lower Saucon patrons to be able to have full access again,” HAL Director Ali Finkbeiner said. “They will no longer have to pay for cards January 2025.”
However, township residents won’t officially be part of the HAL service area until July, she said, when the library submits its State Aid Library Subsidy Application for approval.
The library then would provide ACCESSPA stickers from there.
Before the new partnership, township residents had been able to check out anything from the library’s collection, use on-site computers and take part in children’s programming.
But people from Lower Saucon haven’t been able to use interlibrary loans or use the Cloud Library.
“We’re just very excited for our Lower Saucon patrons to be able to have full access again. They will no longer have to pay for cards January 2025.”Hellertown Area Library Director Ali Finkbeiner
Along with standard-issue library services, HAL offers early literacy programming, continued education activities and even local school support for children and their families.
The library is just down the street from the Saucon Valley Schools campus.
HAL will be closed New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.
Moving forward
Since Jan, 1, 2023, Lower Saucon has had no official “home” library agreement with HAL, ever since the library removed the township from its service area.
The two parties have had their differences over the years.
In the meantime, individuals and families have been able to get back part of the individual and family costs of library cards through the township.
With an individual card being $40 and family cards being $50, the reimbursement program has paid back township residents $20 and $40, respectively.
According to a HAL report, 136 individual cards and 461 family cards were sold as part of the program.
'A big, fat check'
“I’m very proud that we have followed through on one of the most important things that our community wanted to see," Councilwoman Victoria Opthof-Cordaro said.
"Which was bringing our Hellertown Area Library back to the funding standards that it needs to service our residents and to service the community at large.”
Opthof-Cordaro and fellow councilwomen President Priscilla deLeon and Laura Ray ran as a slate in the previous election, with making amends with HAL being a key part of their campaign.
The Democrats each sported signs in front of their seats on the panel, saying, “FULLY FUND OUR HELLERTOWN AREA LIBRARY.” The Republicans sat behind signs supporting President-elect Donald Trump.
Banonis said the agreement was a waste of taxpayer money and could be summed up to just “a big fat check." He actually presented a huge, dummy check in front of the audience — one made out to Hellertown for “almost $1.2 million.”
“They’re just going back to the old rundown library that nobody uses."Lower Saucon Township Councilman Thomas Carocci, speaking on a new deal to fund Hellertown Area Library
“This is purely politics,” Banonis said of the council minority. “They’re just playing politics.
"You’re going to get taxed to death because of their incompetence, because they want to play politics instead of being responsible with your money.”
He said the township being given one spot on the library board wouldn’t be appropriate, given the amount of money proposed.
Carocci called the library on Constitution Avenue a “shoe box,” and said it doesn’t compare to others locally, such as the libraries in Upper Saucon, Emmaus and Lower Macungie.
“Those libraries are big and beautiful, and we had so much money from this landfill that we could have built a beautiful library 10, 15, 20 years ago in the township that would be the envy — like our baseball field is, like our landfill revenue is — the envy of other townships and municipalities in the Lehigh Valley,” Carocci said.
“They’re just going back to the old rundown library that nobody uses.”
'Best Christmas present I could have'
Gabrielle McCabe, who lives in Lower Saucon and works part time at HAL, said she grew up spending time there and volunteering.
She said she wasn’t present to speak officially on behalf of her employer, but “from sitting behind the circulation desk,” McCabe said she sees firsthand the impact books can have on someone.
“I am really just wanting to reaffirm that libraries really are very important to the community,” McCabe said.
Resident JoEllen Thompson said, “I fail to see how any member of council could say that supporting an agreement with the Hellertown Library could be considered a misappropriation of funds.
“I strongly support signing this agreement.”
“I fail to see how any member of council could say that supporting an agreement with the Hellertown Library could be considered a misappropriation of funds."Lower Saucon Township resident JoEllen Thompson
“Please, please, please tighten it up,” resident and former Councilwoman Donna Louder told the township solicitor. She said libraries are “turning into dinosaurs, and it’s unfortunate.”
Resident Dave Boulin described the deal as “abysmal” and “a tragic piece of garbage.”
Local Mary Dawson said she reads maybe three books a week: “If you approve this, that will be the best Christmas present I could have.”
Township resident Anne Marie Slavick said the contract could back the township into a corner legally.
“My biggest concern right now, is that we’re in a 10-year contract, and it seems like, once again, our solicitor is supposed to be making sure that Lower Saucon Township doesn’t get into anything that we can’t get out of," Slavick said.
"We’re getting into something we can’t get out of."
