The Call of History: Historical Society to Plead Case with Trustees Tuesday

A possible face-to-face show down of two sides in a growing contentious matter involving space and access at the Watertown Free Public Library could occur at the Tuesday night, Aug. 6, meeting of the Library's Trustees.

Leaders of the Historical Society of Watertown will attempt to plead for a compromise on plans by the trustees to remove Watertown historical material from the library to be replaced by binders filled with documentation on an environmental clean up at the Arsenal complex.

According to an e-mail sent to approximately 150 supporters, the leaders of the historical society, Marilynne Roach, Joyce Kelly and Clare Murphy, are asking them to attend the Trustee's meeting at 7 p.m. in the Raya Stern Trustees Room to hear Roach discuss a compromise plan that will allow for the library to be a depository for a library of material from the US Army Corps of Engineers on the environmental condition and clean up of the Arsenal section of town and allow the town's history to remain where it is now housed. 

The 12-acre property used to be part of the U.S. Army’s Watertown Arsenal and part of the land was used as a burning pit. It will be turned into wetlands that can be used for “passive recreation," according to the Corp. 

As part of the clean up, the countless number of binders with information on the land, its condition and the clean up strategy along with other related material is required to be made available for the public. It was decided by the library's leadership that they could be the recipients of the material and store it in the Local History Room which now holds the collection of historic material and items for public viewing. 

According to Roach, the compromise is doable due to advancements in technology. 

In the e-mail, Roach said the Corp is willing to "provide the Library with a master copy of a CD ROM and a General Use CD ROM copy of the Admin. Record for the GSA Property."  

"They recognize that 'a local repository' such as the WFPL 'may prefer to have the documents available via CD-ROM or internet, in light of potential space concerns.'" 

According to Roach, the Free Library would not have to harbor the cost of digitizing all that material, and the offered Arsenal CD ROMs would occupy very little shelf space.

Roach told supporters that a phone conversation indicated that while the Department of Environmental Protection wants paper originals to remain in the Library's possession, "the papers themselves do not need to be kept in the Library building. They may be stored somewhere else in Watertown as long as they are publicly accessible within a day or two if someone requests seeing them." Roach said they will help the Library find free space in town for the bulky paper material to be stored. 

Roach will attempt to make a statement during the Public Forum section of the meeting in which she will reiterate the information about the CD ROM above, and offer the Historical Society’s efforts to help find a place to store the 3-ring binders on the Arsenal cleanup and to work with the Library Director and the Trustees regarding weeding out of any materials in the Local History room.

But Roach will only be given the right to speak if the Trustees allow it. In a relatively formal method of conduct that other Massachusetts towns have done away with decades ago, potential speakers must place his or her name on a list and identify the topic prior to the scheduled start of the meeting.

It is the Chair of the Board of Library Trustees, Michael Hanlon, will determine whether the topic is appropriate, and recognize speakers. After being recognized by the Chair, the speaker must state their name and address for the record. Comments must be kept to two minutes or less.