Goodbye and Thank You from the director of the Seekonk Public Library

Dear Friends,

As many of you know, I am retiring as director of the Seekonk Public Library on August 29th. It has been my great pleasure to serve the people of Seekonk for almost 24 years—the last nine of those as the director of your library. I am grateful for the consistent and generous support that you, the residents of Seekonk, have provided the library. I am also grateful to our exceptional staff and dedicated trustees whose commitment to the Library has been especially evident the past few months as we persevere through the COVID19 crisis.

During my 40 years of public service, Seekonk has been the best community to work for. Becoming part of your community, the gracious way you all invited me to participate, have been a tremendous highlight of my tenure here. It was an honor to be part of the informal coalition of local organizations and government agencies that are diligently working to improve the quality of life in Seekonk. I will miss working with all those truly concerned citizens who have contributed in so many ways to making a Seekonk a great place to live. I will be leaving with gratitude and appreciation, and a rewarding sense of accomplishment. But, I will also be leaving with one important piece of unfinished business.

Seekonk Public Library has evolved and improved considerably during the last 24 years. Use of the library has steadily increased and many new services have been introduced. In recent years, however, our progress has been stifled by a lack of space. The existing library was designed and constructed in the late 1970s, and the current building does not fully support 21st century library service. For the last two decades, the library administration and staff have struggled to optimize the level of service that it can offer in this inadequate space. We exhausted those options early in my tenure as library director. In recent years, we have had to curtail some services in order to expand or add other services.

There is hope for a brighter future for our library. Several years ago, the library trustees initiated a process to design and build a new library. The state has provisionally awarded a $7.3 million construction grant to the Town of Seekonk based on the design approved at the 2018 Town Meeting. Next year, we anticipate moving this project forward. With your continuing support, we hope to begin construction in 2022.

Although I am retiring, I remain committed to helping Seekonk get the library you need and deserve. My family and I will continue to support the building project by making a pledge and donating to the Seekonk Library Trust. The Library Trust is a tax exempt 501 (c)(3) charitable foundation that exists to support the Seekonk Public Library. If you share that commitment to a better library, we urge you to join us by making a donation to the Seekonk Library Trust. Just go to www.seekonklibrarytrust.org and click on the donate button.

I also invite you to join the Friends of Seekonk Public Library. The Friends is also a non-profit 501 (c)(3) organization and its primary purpose is to advocate for the library. The Friends represent the collective voice of all of us who value the library as a community resource.

I’ve met and worked with many wonderful people during my tenure at the library. I’m grateful for their advice, assistance, and advocacy. I thank all of you for your support and wish you all well.

Sincerely,
Peter F. Fuller