Latest News
KENT, Conn. — The effects of federal cutbacks are beginning to trickle down to the local level. Last week, area librarians were alarmed to learn that programs important to rural populations, such as the interlibrary loan service provided through Connecticut State Library, were abruptly defunded effective April 1.
The Connecticut State Library was notified by the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services, which oversees grants to states, that its 2024-25 federal grant award was terminated. The grant was scheduled to cover the current federal fiscal year ending Sept. 30.
The entire IMLS staff, a relatively small federal agency with around 70 employees, was placed on administrative leave for up to 90 days after a brief meeting between DOGE staff and IMLS leadership.
Connecticut was among the first three states to receive notification of termination, and State Attorney General William Tong joined a lawsuit with 20 other states opposing the elimination of IMLS. The State Library is also working with the Governor’s office, the Office of Policy Management and other state agencies regarding this situation.
Kent Library Director Sarah Marshall, who joined six other Northwest Corner librarians in decrying the federal action, said it is not clear what the full impact will mean, but said it does not mean that local libraries will close their doors. “These are not funds we use to stay open,” she said. “They provide services to our patrons.”
The State Library had $2.2 million to underwrite services such as a van to deliver interlibrary loan books for free. “We process about 24 books through interlibrary loan three times each week,” Marshall said. “Without the van, it costs $4 to $6 a book to mail them. That could amount to $1,800 a year and there is no way to replace that on an individual basis.”
Another service affected would be the e-rate program, which provides funds for schools and libraries to improve their broadband access, saving 76 Connecticut libraries $497,221 in fiscal year 2024.
Marshall said the library’s internet service is fiber optic and expensive. The loss of the federal funding could increase annual expenses by $6,000. “A lot of people use our Internet,” she said, and they are not just families who don’t have home access, but also visitors and hikers passing through town who want to check their email.
“Those are the things Kent will feel most, but there are other things as well,” Marshall said, including funding for summer reading and enrichment programs, professional development for librarians, circulation of audio and braille books to more than 5,000 patrons, including 316 veterans, and the statewide eBook platform which provides to a collection of 50,000 books, periodicals and databases.
“Right now, there are more questions than answers,” said Marshall, who noted that some of the programs were authorized through state statutes. “We don’t know if the state will step in to provide funding or not,” she said.
State Attorney General William Tong was quick to join a coalition of 20 other states in challenging the federal action. “We had to sue to stop Trump from defunding our schools and cancer cures, from defunding energy assistance and vaccines, from defunding disaster relief and the police. Now, we have to sue again to stop him from defunding summer reading programs and audiobooks for disabled veterans,” said Tong in a statement.
Beyond the scope of state funding for services, Marshall said there could be impact from tariffs if they are ultimately imposed. On April 2, Trump signed an executive order imposing a minimum 10 percent tariff on all U.S. imports effective April 5. Higher tariffs on imports from 57 countries, ranging from 11 to 50%, were scheduled to take effect on April 9 but were almost immediately suspended for 90 days for all countries except China.
The library is planning a $6.8 million expansion this year and a lot of the equipment needed would come from Asia. “We are estimating it could cost 15 to 20% more,” she said, “and we don’t have 15 to 20% more. That’s another sticky wicket.”
Still, she said there have yet to be any changes to the plans approved last year for the expansion. “It’s business as usual,” she concluded. “We don’t want to react so strongly to something that hasn’t happened yet. We can’t throw away what we have been doing when we don’t know what the outcome will be.”
Kathryn Boughton is the editor of Kent Dispatch.
Keep ReadingShow less
Classifieds - April 24, 2025
Apr 23, 2025
Help Wanted
Experienced horse equestrian: to train three-year-old white Persian Mare for trail riding. 860-67-0499.
Help wanted: Small Angus Farm seeks reliable help for cattle and horses. Duties include feeding, fence repair, machine repair. Will train the right person. 860-671-0499.
The Town of Cornwall has several job openings for the Town Beach: Beach Director, Water Safety Instructor, and Certified Lifeguards. For more details and to apply, contact First Selectman’s office 860-672-4959.
Services Offered
Hector Pacay Service: House Remodeling, Landscaping, Lawn mowing, Garden mulch, Painting, Gutters, Pruning, Stump Grinding, Chipping, Tree work, Brush removal, Fence, Patio, Carpenter/decks, Masonry. Spring and Fall Cleanup. Commercial & Residential. Fully insured. 845-636-3212.
Farm Products
Hay For Sale: Round Bales. First Cutting covered hay, round bales. First cut hay covered with plastic. $25 for bale loaded. 860-671-0499.
Real Estate
PUBLISHER’S NOTICE: Equal Housing Opportunity. All real estate advertised in this newspaper is subject to the Federal Fair Housing Act of 1966 revised March 12, 1989 which makes it illegal to advertise any preference, limitation, or discrimination based on race, color religion, sex, handicap or familial status or national origin or intention to make any such preference, limitation or discrimination. All residential property advertised in the State of Connecticut General Statutes 46a-64c which prohibit the making, printing or publishing or causing to be made, printed or published any notice, statement or advertisement with respect to the sale or rental of a dwelling that indicates any preference, limitation or discrimination based on race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, marital status, age, lawful source of income, familial status, physical or mental disability or an intention to make any such preference, limitation or discrimination.
Houses For Rent
3b/3b home in Sharon:fully furnished, lake access, 3.84 acres. $5000 per month. 860-309-4482.
MT RIGA Two Bedroom LAKEFRONT: Log cabin. Private beach, canoes and kayaks. $1350/Week. 585-355-5245.
Seasonal rental: Very private and comfortable 4B/3B home set back from the road. 6/15-9/15. sun rm/dr, upper and lower decks, ping pong and knock hockey, den, FP, W/D, fully equipped. 15K seas. 917-887-8885.
Sharon Rentals: 1b/1b home on a private lake. Avail 4/1/25. Yearly. $2750/Furnished, weekly house--keeping, garbage, water, ground maint. included. utilities addtl. 860-309-4482.
Keep ReadingShow less
The title of artist Ken Krug’s new show, “Country Roads and City Streets” says exactly what it is: a collection of small, observant paintings rooted in the two places he knows best — New York City and West Cornwall, Connecticut. The show opens April 26 at Souterrain Gallery in West Cornwall, the town where Krug and his wife Liz Van Doren spend most weekends and summers. “I realized I’d been painting a lot of roads,” he said. “In the city, you look at streets. In the country, you look at roads.” It sounds like a metaphor, and maybe it is — for duality, for motion, for Krug’s own career which spans fine art, children’s books, textile design, and teaching.
The show is comprised mostly of small paintings, many born from the prolific sketching Krug does often while waiting in his car for alternate-side parking, a time sucking practice that anyone with a vehicle in New York is intimately familiar with. “I probably fill 100 pages of sketches every couple of weeks,” said Krug, flipping through a stack of sketchbooks. “A lot of those ideas came from just sitting and drawing when I’m in the car.” Other works pull from more pastoral moments — milkweed in summer and in winter, long winding roads at dusk.
What unifies the work is perhaps not subject but feeling. Krug is most interested in capturing a sensation. “For me, painting is sharing my experience of looking at things,” he said. “It’s like telling someone a story.” He doesn’t expect viewers to see what he sees. “I just want them to feel something,” he said. “Whatever it is. That’s the emotional truth.”
“City Steam”by Ken KrugProvided
Krug was that kid drawing with chalk on the sidewalk until the light faded. “I remember being disappointed because nobody had cameras in those days, so whatever I was doing was gone the next day,” he said. That compulsion to capture impermanence may have stuck. Krug doesn’t romanticize process or product. He paints quickly, often reworks pieces, and is not especially precious. “I used to do very detailed paintings,” he said. “Now I want something simpler. I don’t want to spend a lot of time because it starts to lose some of that spontaneity.”
Yet his work has endured in some surprising places. His paintings appear in the film, “You Can Count on Me,” starring Laura Linney, and he illustrated Michelle Obama’s “White House Garden,” a job that came via proposal and then, months later, a call saying the White House had chosen him. Krug has written and illustrated his own books including “No, Silly!” which landed on Bank Street College’s Best Books of 2016 list, and has designed textiles for companies you’ve probably bought from without knowing.“That’s the thing I do love about commercial work, and I always tell my students this — you know, many of the textile designs or illustrations I’m doing are not for products I like, not for something I would really want in my house. But I love the problem solving.”
“Lilacs in a Green Jar” by Ken KrugProvided
But it’s painting — the part of his practice with no client, no invoice, and no guaranteed outcome — that keeps pulling him back. “When I’m painting, I don’t know what’s going to happen,” he said. “I can fail, and it doesn’t matter. That’s what I like about it.” Failure, for Krug, is part of the process. Many works in the show began as something else but ended up being scraped away, flipped upside down, reimagined. “One of my favorite pieces in this show came out of a failed painting,” he said. “I turned it upside down and thought, ‘Oh, that’s the interesting part.’” Painting for Krug is a constant companion — daily, unceremonious, a little compulsive. “I even find myself if I’m outside, like, I’m drawing with my hand even though there’s no paper or anything there.”
“I do a lot of painting of all sorts, all the time,” said Krug, which sounds like false modesty but isn’t. In fact, Krug is already thinking of what’s next, of how the road he ran on this morning in Cornwall could be painted better now that he’s looked at it again. “Now I know what I want to do,” he mused. “Whenever I’m ready to show the work,” he said, “is when I’m kind of ready to do the next thing.”
Keep ReadingShow less
loading