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PHOTO: wanaka.tv
Rallying for the librarians Caroline Harker
Auction for incredible young man page 14
Wanaka tops sports awards page 17
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Supporters of local librarians are rallying en masse following the revelation last week that all seven staff are losing their jobs, and only three will be reappointed. An estimated 150 people marched in the streets on Tuesday and supporters have asked for a mass turnout at the QLDC meeting in the Lake Wanaka Centre on Friday morning. Messages of support and condolence are pouring into the library, and hundreds of people are protesting via facebook. The response follows a confidential draft report being leaked to the media revealing proposals to axe 80 jobs from the council, reducing staff numbers to 254. This will save up to $3 million dollars annually ‘in the short to medium term’. Council staff were told about the cuts by CEO Adam Feeley on April 2 and given two weeks to provide feedback, a time period they see as
very short, especially as the CEO said their comments would be “a vital part of the restructure process.” Adam Feeley is expected to deliver his final decisions to staff on April 30. The current library staff in Wanaka includes manager Sue Gwilliam, four
research work, and the circulation of books to retirement villages. “The Wanaka Library is much valued by the community…and is an important part of the social fabric of the town,” Wanaka Residents Association President Graham Dickson said. He is dismayed at
The Wanaka Library is much valued by the community…and is an important part of the social fabric of the town. librarians, three library assistants and a cataloguer. Some of the services which library supporters fear will be lost include not only the availability of librarians to recommend books to parents, children and readers with specific interests or enquires, but also other services including preschool and school holiday programmes and visits, book repairs, reference and
the lack of public consultation, as is former Dunedin mayor, Wanaka resident Dame Sukhi Turner, who spoke to supporters before Tuesday’s impromptu march. She said the changes proposed are ‘wide ranging and revolutionary’ and asked why decisions were being made at a managerial level. “Managers are meant to take direction from their
local representatives,” she said. She queried an open letter from Adam Feeley and Mayor Vanessa Van Uden which said of the proposed changes: ‘our services can be better; faster and more affordable, without losing the all-important human face of customer service and public interface (i.e. libraries)’. “How can services be better if they are cutting staff numbers,” she said. Sukhi suggested the council survey its ratepayers. “In Dunedin we did surveys every year and the library always got 98 percent support,” she said. Sukhi encouraged Wanaka library supporters to attend Friday’s council meeting, write to council representatives and express their views, comment online on the council website and to sign petitions supporting the library.