Leaders of the Byram Neighborhood Association are taking issue with a custodial fee required of groups looking to use the community room at the recently renovated Byram Shubert Library.
Since the branch library reopened last year, Greenwich Library has required groups that use the space after hours to pay for a staff member to be present and lock up the building.
Michael Bocchino, the group's chairman, said he feels requiring local organizations to pay to use a space built for community meetings is unfair.
While the neighborhood association currently meets for free at St. Paul Lutheran Church on nearby Delavan Avenue, Bocchino said he'd rather use the library because "there are so many members of the neighborhood association whose dollars went for this new community room."
"It's ridiculous for them to charge us money when the community room was built with part of the community's money," Bocchino said.
Carol Mahoney, director of Greenwich Library, said she wasn't aware that anyone had an issue with the fee, a rate of $39.60 per hour, with a three-hour minimum, an average of the library's custodial overtime rates.
Mahoney said the library has a contractual obligation to pay a custodian to be in the building beyond the 48 hours that the facility is open. The new community room, which accommodates 100 people, and is also used for library programming, is connected to the building and doesn't have a separate entrance.
Before the branch's multimillion-dollar renovation, library staff was much more relaxed with community groups, providing them with the key and having them lock up after meetings. But Mahoney said since the library has a responsibility to protect the community's investment, that can no longer be done....
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