To the Arundel Board of Selectmen, Arundel Budget Board, and Arundel Town Manager:

In a recent newspaper article on library funding, Stephanie Limmer, director of the Kennebunk Free Library stated that your town has decided not to appropriate the 2009-2010 library contribution of $9,825.

I respectfully ask that you reconsider that decision.

There are many Arundel residents who use the Kennebunk library, and to ask our town to absorb that additional cost isn’t acceptable, given the current economic situation.

Kennebunk already provides many services for the citizens of Arundel, including police service calls, fire department calls, and education for Arundel students at about half the actual per-student cost.

In addition, due to the recent school consolidation, Kennebunk residents will be absorbing a significant school budget increase, since the state requires a raise in salaries for Arundel elementary school teachers. Kennebunk residents will be absorbing the entire cost for that salary raise, due to the funding structure for the new district.

The Kennebunk Free Library is a wonderful institution, which provides essential services for all the surrounding communities. They have been hit hard by decreases to their endowment income, and they need every dollar they can get, in order to meet the ever-increasing demand on their facility by residents of your town, and ours.

In light of all the other services provided to Arundel residents by the town of Kennebunk, I would respectfully ask that you reconsider your decision not to fund the annual Kennebunk Free Library contribution.

Naran Row-Spaulding

Kennebunk