To: Citizens of Rockport and the Rockport Select Board

Mary Louise Bok was a generous, community minded woman who is part of Rockport's history. In 1943 she gave the Town land to build a library. It is the site of our present library. The deed provided that the land would remain the Town's so long as it was used as a library. We are grateful to Mary Louise Bok for her kindness and generosity.

On December 8th the Rockport Select Board held a meeting to discuss the future of the library. Although the town in 2014 voted against moving the library to the RES site (1065 against/786 for), several proponents of the move to RES again propose building the library at the former elementary school site.

The deed provides that if the town were to abandon the present library site, the title to the library's land would revert back to the Mary Louise Bok heirs. In the Select Board's discussion of the "problem" of the deed, it was noted that, according to the Town's attorneys, the Town can simply file a Declaratory Judgement to remove this deed restriction.

A Declaratory Judgment is, in effect, a lawsuit filed against the very family who gave Rockport the library property. Sue the giver of the gift? What happened to common decency?

Any lawsuit would take time and money. Rockport taxpayers would incur significant attorney's fees with no certainty of winning. All of this is especially troubling because it is unnecessary. The majority of citizens in Rockport want to keep the library where it is.

How the Town treats a generous citizen still matters. The Rockport Select Board would not represent the conscience of our community if they were to recommend bringing such a distasteful legal action against the Mary Louise Bok heirs.