NEWS

Dover library gets locks to curb drug use

Staff also considers 'blue light solution,' director says

Jeff McMenemy,Jeff McMenemy
jmcmenemy@seacoastonline.com
Cathleen Beaudoin, director of the Dover Public Library, said she is hopeful a lock-and-key system for the library's bathrooms will reduce drug use and make it easier for the staff to track any issues. [John Huff/Fosters.com, file]

DOVER — The city’s library staff has received the locks they will use in an effort to cut down on drug use in their public bathrooms.

Library Director Cathleen Beaudoin ordered the locks in response to what she’s seen as an increase in suspected drug use in the bathrooms during the last two years, along with some vandalism.

Once the locks are installed, anyone wishing to use a bathroom will need to get a key from a library staffer.

Baudoin told the Library Board of Trustees Thursday they have put an order in to have the new locks installed.

Beaudoin previously said the new policy should make it easier for staffers to recognize when someone has been inside a bathroom for an extended period of time and may be using drugs.

During Thursday’s meeting at the library, Beaudoin said library staff are conducting hourly “walkabouts” to make “sure nobody’s doing anything illegal” in the library.

“Once an hour we just make the rounds and we just check on the people in the chairs, and if they’re sleeping, that’s fine, we leave them alone,” she said.

But if someone is suspected of either drinking or using drugs, library staff can take further action, she said.

The library staff is also investigating the “blue light solution,” Beaudoin said Thursday.

“People are telling us if you install blue lights in your restrooms and bathe the rooms in blue, that (drug users) can't shoot up because they can’t see their veins,” she told the trustees.

The Dover library was contacted by a librarian in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, who read about the issue at Dover's library was dealing with, and said the practice “worked for them,” Beaudoin said.

She asked the Dover Police Department to look into the idea and library staff have researched articles citing the pros and cons of the blue light policy.

“Some articles say they’ll do it anyway and they’re more likely to hurt themselves,” Beaudoin said. “We’re still on the fence about blue lights. I’m leaning against it at this point.”

She acknowledged it “could be a little eerie and weird to walk into a bathroom and see a blue light for kids. ... We’ll see how we do with locks first."

Beaudoin reported the staff received a letter from a frequent patron around Christmas, thanking them for treating her with respect, even though she doesn’t like to interact with people.

Library staff were grateful for the letter, Beaudoin said, “because sometimes we feel like we’re really put upon dealing with all these issues, and we feel like social workers instead of librarians at times.”

Library staff deal with people suffering from mental illness on a daily basis, she added.