I was pleased to attend the staff appreciation dinner for the Nevins Memorial Library right after the MCTV debate. The Nevins Library and its staff do a great job day in and day out for Methuen, and I am proud to call myself an avid supporter of this great institution. The recent passing of trustee Carl Woekel, a Methuen legend, was on the minds of all at the dinner. The chair of the Board of Trustees, Jim Smith, gave a moving tribute to Carl which reflected Carl’s deep committment to the Nevins Library as well as his true love of Methuen.

The Library Trustees gave me the honor of speaking, and we all talked about the budget crisis and how important it is to maintain our committment to this institution. In these difficult financial times I have maintained this Administration’s funding for the Library, actually increasing our financial support from last year. With libraries throughout Massachusetts facing layoffs and losing service hours, Methuen has kept its Library open and not cut Library services to its citizens. Now that is a quality of life issue that we can all be proud of. My thanks to Jim Smith, Arthur Nicholson, and all of the Trustees for all of their hard work. And a special thank you to Krista McLeod, who has been such a superb Library Director for the Nevins.