NEWFANE, N.Y. — It has been a week since the staff at the Town of Newfane Library gave their resignations, and now some members of the library's Board of Trustee's are doing the same.
According to the agenda minutes from the most recent Library's Board of Trustee's meeting, the board accepted the resignations of Director Sarah O'Shea, Library Manager Amy Wilt, Library Clerks Emily Clark and Colette O'Connor and Phyllis Walker.
But it has not yet been confirmed why those employees all decided to leave.
At that time, the Lockport Union Sun & Journal spoke to board president Kelly Artieri who said,
"The Newfane Library Board of Trustees is the governing body of the library. We are responsible for policies implemented and are mandated to follow New York State Department of Education law and maintain fiscal responsibility. Sometimes the decisions that are made may not be popular, but are necessary. We respect the choices of our employees. The board is solely made up of volunteers. We will continue to keep the community informed.”
Artieri is one of the four board members who has since decided to resign. In a social media post made to the library's Facebook page the board wrote:
"The Newfane Board of Trustees has accepted, with regret, the resignations of K. Artieri, C. Ames, M. Kramp and C. Larkin. We thank them for their years of service. The remaining board members are dedicated to keeping the library open and safe to the public as we re-fill the board seats.
NY State regulations governing libraries require us to hire a Library Director with specific education and training. The first order of business is to hire a new Library Director who will manage staffing."
It is unclear why those board members have decided to now step down from their roles.
In the meantime, the library has also announced that they will be temporarily closed beginning on Monday, March 4 due to what they said was already scheduled renovations.
They hope to reopen in April, and wrote that they will provide updates as they become available.
They plan on searching for a new Library Director.
View the library's post attached below for more.