Friends aim to rebuild friendship with Middleboro library

MIDDLEBORO — The decades-old nonprofit group established to support the Middleboro Public Library is seeking to rebuild bridges with the library's leadership.

Over a year of conflict with Library Director Randy Gagné and the nonprofit erupted into public view last summer. The Friends of the Middleboro Public Library were evicted from the library’s basement space — where it had operated a fundraising bookstore, the group closed their library parking lot and accusations that the nonprofit was seeking to support non-library organizations were leveled on social media.

After Gagné departed for a similar post in Sharon in late-January, leaders of the Friends are optimistic about establishing a positive working relationship with the still-unselected next library director.

At an informal Jan. 27 meeting between the Friends board members, members of the local media and Select Board Member Brian Giovanoni, leaders of the nonprofit group answered questions about the controversy and explained how the group operates.

Unlike most library support organizations, whose activities are confined to conventional fundraising efforts to pay for library programming, the Friends own two properties. The group owns a parking lot on Main Street across from the library, which provides patron parking. In 2024, the will of Middleboro attorney William Decas also left the Peter H. Peirce Homestead to the Friends.

How the maintenance of a large historic building and a parking lot fit with library support have been part of the controversy swirling around the nonprofit.

At the meeting, Treasurer Tony Freitas said the support group maintains three separate accounts:

The Peirce Homestead account. This account is funded by rental income from office space and three residential apartments in the large 1814 structure. Board members assured the group that no donations intended for the library are used to support the homestead.

At present, Friends President Paula Fay said the group has offered use of the homestead’s grounds to the library for outdoor programming, and would like to work with the next director to find additional ways the homestead could benefit the library.

The parking lot account. Freitas explained the purpose of the “Ex Libris” basement bookstore had been to generate funds to maintain the parking lot — plowing and salting in the winter, repainting lines, periodic resurfacing and a portion of insurance bills.

With the bookstore closed and that funding stream — about $300 to $500 per month — eliminated, the Friends’ first response was closing off the parking lot entrance. The group relented in the face of public outcry and reopened the lot. Freitas said he has been plowing and salting the lot himself this winter, and said he plans to keep it open barring a winter blizzard.

The main fund. All proceeds from fundraising events, pledge drives and grants go into the main fund and are used to pay for library programming. Under a long-standing system, library management selects and manages this programming. The Friends reimburse the library for associated expenses. 

Board members said the Friends sent about $16,000 annually to the library. From that fund, “we have not given a cent to anybody but the library,” Freitas said. 

Some critics have suggested wording in the group’s bylaws allow the Friends to give funds to unrelated organizations. Fay acknowledged the standard legal language in the bylaws remains unchanged from when the Friends were incorporated in the 1980s. They allow the group to fund programming that is not strictly associated with the library. 

“We have not given our money to anyone but the public library,” Fay said. “Are we structured that we can? Sure. Have we done that? No.”

Moving forward, Assistant Treasurer Barbara Chadwick said once a new library director is hired, the Friends and library representatives can “sit down and talk about how we feel, and how we can operate successfully to the benefit of the town and everybody.” 

Giovanoni outlined what he saw as a way forward for the Friends.

“Like [Chadwick] said, your goal is when the new director is chosen, you're going to have a nice sit down with the director, maybe with the Board of Library Trustees, and have a conversation and maybe move this forward… a restart,” Giovanoni said.

As of this writing, Nemasket Week has been unable to contact former Library Director Randy Gagné or Board of Library Trustees Chair James Okolita for their input.