Staff photo / J.T. Whitehouse Local architect and Poland resident Bob Mastriana took up a good deal of the Tuesday Poland Village Council meeting with his concerns over the recent Poland Library remodeling that was done over the summer. He was not satisfied with the results.

POLAND — Village resident and architect Bob Mastriana spoke for over a half hour on the recent remodeling of the Poland Library during the village council meeting on Tuesday.

“It started in the summer when the library board was going to refresh our library,” Mastriana said. “That was a red flag to me.”

He said the library is 23 years old and there are concerns over poor maintenance. He gave the example of the globe light fixtures that haven’t been cleaned. He said when the globes were removed and cleaned, the lights were much brighter.

He talked about the library’s clock tower that had a clock that wasn’t functioning.

“It is running now, but the time is wrong,” he said.

In a list of concerns, one of his highlighted points was the fine art and model ships that were donated. He claimed that after the remodeling, the ships, some art pieces and some donated busts were not put back.

“Does the board no longer accept fine art items,” Mastriana said. “What is the policy about fine art donations?”

He said when the library was re-opened, only three busts (McKinley, Lincoln and Washington) were set out.

Other concerns he presented included the replacing of the Windsor chairs with a more modern looking chair, installing a carpet that can confuse the visually impaired, and the outside bricks being replaced with painted concrete.

“(The library) tore out all of the bricks along the rear of the building and poured pink concrete, without any knowledge or approval of the village,” Mastriana said.

He asked that village officials get behind the residents in dealing with the issues.

Poland Village Council President Michael Thompson told Mastriana the village only has power over the exterior patio, as it should have went before the village’s Architectural Review Board (ARB). Changes made on a historic property would have to be reviewed by that board and recommended to council. No such action was taken.

As to most of the interior issues, Councilman Samuel Moffie said, “This fight needs to be taken to the library trustees.”

Responding to the complaints that Mastriana talked about was Public Library Director Aimee Fifarek. She said she does care about the Poland Library, and didn’t agree with a lot of Mastriana’s remarks.

“The charge of no maintenance being done is incorrect,” she said. “The carpet was extremely worn and needed to be replaced. We didn’t remove any of the art. I think the personal attacks on me and my staff is reprehensible. ”

Fifarek said regarding the Windsor chairs, they were breaking with patrons sitting on them. She said they needed to be replaced with a more sturdy chair.

One area Fifarek admitted the ball was dropped involved the replacement of the bricks in the rear of the library. She said the old bricks were becoming “trip hazards” and was causing a problem for doors to open.

“The bricks were eaten away by years of salt and sand,” she said.

She said the error was made in not contacting the village and the ARB to seek approval for the colored concrete replacement. “We will do what we need to do to make it right,” Fifarek said.

Village Solicitor Joseph Macejko said he would meet with library officials to find a solution on the colored concrete.

Mastriana asked why the village couldn’t use the concrete issue to leverage some of the other issues inside. Thompson said that is not the right thing for the village to even think about.

“I’ll come up with a plan of action,” Macejko said.

Several others spoke up on the issue, including Poland resident Kathy Miller and Richard Scarsella from Boardman, who said he uses the Poland Library a lot.

jtwhitehouse@vindy.com