As a longtime (more than 20 years) resident of Lewiston and a longtime user of the library, I was extremely disappointed to hear of the possibility of closing the library one extra day per week.

Here are two good reasons to expand library hours, rather than shorten them.

My first is that the library plays an outsized role as a resource for our community. In a generally low-income community such as ours, the availability of resources to make reading a part of everyday life is essential to give community members a chance to better themselves and their children.

Aside from the particular character of Lewiston’s economic situation, every community’s library is a mainstay of cultural opportunities, and it is cultural opportunities that make any community worth living in.

My second reason to oppose shortening the weekly library hours is for the sake of the professional staff employed therein. I can speak from experience that it is sometimes difficult to draw good professional (or non-professional) staff to Lewiston and to jobs in the downtown area.

Cutting public hours at the library would be hindering the ability of library staff to do their jobs well, and therefore greatly decreasing the attractiveness of these positions for the well-educated candidates the city is hoping to attract.

It should be a goal of any reasonable sized city to attract new residents and improve the lives of current residents.

Cutting back library hours actively works against both of those goals.

Jake Paris, Lewiston

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