I would like to thank the people at the Paris Public Library for their great service to the town’s taxpayers.

Last month, the Sun Journal covered the budget committees of Paris and Norway dealing with requests from their public libraries. The Paris library was asking for around $160,000. The Norway library wanted around $250,000. Knowing the Norway library was larger and offers many more programs, I thought little of the difference.

Recently, though, when visiting the Paris library, I overheard two women discussing the many new books at the Paris library, and how it seemed to have a bigger book budget than the Norway library. Asking a librarian what the Paris library spent on books, I was told the library purchased about $35,000 in books, movies and magazines this past year, about the same as Norway, he believed. Attributing the difference to staff costs, I looked up the Norway library’s hours online, and found it is open 41 hours a week; the Paris library is open 58 hours per week.

I do not intend to criticize the Norway library, but I think the people of Paris should appreciate the services their public library provides them for the cost.

I am sure the Norway Budget Committee would happily switch places with Paris when it comes to the libraries’ budgets.

Peter A. Bevins, South Paris