The Yellow Barn, the historic carriage house converted into a funky and beloved used book store at the Riverhead library, won’t be opening next month as usual.
The Yellow Barn is owned and maintained by the library, but the book store has been operated by the nonprofit Friends of the Riverhead Free Library, and the library has decided to end its relationship with the Friends group.
The Friends have removed all the books from the Yellow Barn and put them in storage, Friends of the Riverhead Free Library board president Linda Prizer said in a phone interview yesterday. The organization will be donating the books to other nonprofits and veterans groups, she said.
The books were donated to the Friends and sold by the group’s volunteers who staffed the Yellow Barn each spring through fall. The group raised about $25,000 a year through book sales, Prizer said.
Riverhead Free Library Director Kerrie McMullen-Smith said yesterday “the library will be exploring opportunities to partner with another not-for-profit organization to assist with book sales,” which the library hopes will begin again by summer.
The Yellow Barn operation isn’t the only casualty of the less-than-amicable break-up. The concerts and programs sponsored by the Friends group, with funds raised by the group through book sales, membership dues, donations and grants, will end, Prizer said. That includes the popular Piano Plus concert series which has been funded the past two years by a $10,000 grant from Suffolk County, she said. The Friends will return this year’s $10,000 grant to the county, Prizer said.
“The library decided to disassociate itself from us,” Prizer said, expressing bafflement. “Why — when we give the library $25,000 to $30,000 a year and have all these programs that we sponsor? I don’t know. It came like a ton of bricks, you know, like, boom, out of nowhere,” she said.
McMullen-Smith said in a phone interview yesterday that the decision came “after years of effort to reconcile differences and encourage an alignment with them, as far as the goals and priorities of the library.”
“We’ve come to the necessary conclusion that we can’t reconcile our differences,” McMullen-Smith said.
“While the friends have supported the library in the past, their focus has increasingly diverged from fully supporting our library programs in need, and this divergence has made it necessary for the library to move forward with alternative plans to ensure that all community support directly benefits library patrons,” McMullen-Smith said. “So when the community, you know, donates to the Friends, we don’t actually get everything. And we want to work with a group that when the community gives support to our group, we benefit from it.” The library wants to “ensure that every dollar that’s raised goes directly toward supporting the library and not other things.”
McMullen-Smith said the library is hoping another support group can be established “that understands their role.”
Prizer said some funds raised by the Friends support scholarships for Riverhead High School students as well as purchasing school supplies for Riverhead students in need. Those decisions are made by the group’s seven-member board. The group has more than 100 members and they would like to continue to sponsor the scholarships and school supply donations, but it won’t be as the Friends of the Riverhead Free Library, Prizer said.
The Friends of the Riverhead Free Library was established in 1958, according to its website. It is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation and a New York State registered charity.
In response to a question about the recent fundraising campaign for the restoration of the Yellow Barn, McMullen-Smith said that was undertaken by the library, not the Friends. The money raised by that campaign went into a dedicated fund set aside for Yellow Barn restoration and maintenance, she said.
The library and the Friends group are still “at the table” finalizing an agreement to formally dissolve their partnership, McMullen-Smith said. She said she regrets that it’s come to this, but believes it’s in the best interests of the library in the long run.
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