Library Veterans Day meeting elicits anger

Some residents are outraged that the Roosevelt Library board of trustees has called its regular meeting for Veterans Day, when the library is officially closed.

"They have a right to call a meeting whenever they want, but it's stupid to call it on Veterans Day," said George Jones, a Roosevelt leader and a brigadier general, retired, in the New York National Guard Reserve, and member of local American Legion Joe Murphy Post. "Nobody in their right mind would call such a meeting. It's in poor taste."

The meeting is at 7:30 p.m.

Board president Bola Majekodunmi could not be reached, nor could vice president Emarinsie Funderburke-Ivey.

But board member Rev. Jerome Taylor, the pastor of the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in the community, said there was no ulterior motive for the meeting date.

"We normally meet on the first Tuesday of each month, but that was Election Day, so we didn't have it. Veterans Day was the first day we could all get together.

" 'All' for Rev. Taylor means the board's three-member majority," said member Wilton Robinson Jr. He and Frank Abel Jr. were ousted in July by the others as board vice president and president, respectively, in a feud over management and money.

The two, who have said they are "outraged" over the Tuesday meeting, have called their ouster illegal, saying they were not notified about the July meeting nor its agenda.

Majekodunmi and Taylor have denied that. The next court date is Wednesday.

Rassan Hoskins, another community leader and an ex-Marine, called the board's meeting date "disrespectful to all veterans, and I'm sure a lot of us are going to be calling them to change it."