ADAMS TWP — Members of the Mars Library Board attended Monday's supervisors meeting to air concerns regarding what they considered to be directives from the board to give municipalities authority to appoint the library's board of directors.

The dispute arose from a letter sent through the township solicitor to the library listing four recommendations from the township to the library. One recommendation was turning over the library's authority to appoint board members to the municipalities that contribute to and are served by the library.

At the library board's meeting on Aug. 20, supervisor Thomas Franceschina introduced Township Manager Gary Peaco as the board's new liaison to the library and reiterated the point about library's authority to make board appointments.

Library board of trustees member Steven Chadwick took issue with this.

Chadwick pointed out that there are many similar institutions and organizations that the township donates to and which are not required to cede similar authority to the board. He said this could be a precedent for future actions.

Chadwick also took issue with the way the information was relayed to library officials, saying Franceschina should not have come to the meeting with a verbal message and that his mention of the money the township donates appeared to be a “thinly veiled threat” that donations from the township would do longer be coming if the library failed to comply.

Read the full story in the Butler Eagle.