Spotswood council honors volunteer Marotta served 40 years on library’s board of trustees, 30 as chairman

Staff Writer

By brian piech

Spotswood council
honors volunteer
Marotta served 40 years on library’s board of trustees, 30 as chairman


Neil Marotta Neil Marotta

SPOTSWOOD — A simple thank-you seemed inadequate after more than 40 years of dedicated service.

That was Borough Council President James Shearn’s sentiment at the Dec. 18 meeting when Neil Marotta was honored for serving on the Spotswood Library’s board of trustees.

Marotta, who retired from the board last month, began volunteering around 1957.

Marotta didn’t recall the exact date he began helping out, but he remembers that Russell Kane was the mayor at the time.

Marotta’s love of books originated in high school when he discovered Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories about the legendary sleuth Sherlock Holmes.

He has been an avid reader ever since, particularly of mysteries and books about Civil War history.

Because of this passion for books, Marotta was happy to help when Helen Arroe, the library director at the time, asked him to make a papier-mâché model of the battle of Gettysburg.

After that, Marotta began volunteering at the library regularly.

When Mayor Kane came up with the idea of appointing a board of trustees to care for the library, he appointed Marotta chairman of the seven-person committee. Marotta filled this position for 30 years.

Marotta recalls that at the time, the library was badly in need of books. It was funded by the Board of Education and received a stipend of $1,000 a year.

The board of trustees quickly realized that it could become eligible for state funding by becoming a free public library.

Originally the Spotswood Library was a community library that served only borough residents.

However, the resources of a free public library could be used by anyone .

This discovery prompted Marotta to ask the Borough Council for a referendum to make the library free and public. He said the council voted overwhelmingly in favor of his proposal.

The first check from the state was received in the early ’60s for $400, while the most recent was for more than $9,000.

Marotta served through the fire that destroyed the old community center where the first library was housed.

He noted that little damage was done to the library’s collection because the fire occurred in other parts of the building.

The fire forced library workers to move their materials to a location about a quarter mile away until the current building was finished in 1973.

The building cost $90,000 and stands in the same lot as the old community center.

The board of trustees sets the library’s policies and approves the director’s budget before submitting it to the Borough Council.

When asked about his goals for the library, Marotta said, "Since we’re a small library, we can’t offer extensive reference material. We concentrate on providing best-sellers and periodicals for our residents."

Marotta said he thinks that the advent of computers has been the single greatest change in the library.

"Since Mary Faith Chmiel has been our director, we’ve come a long way in providing computers for our residents," he said.

According to Chmiel, the library currently has five computers for use by the staff: two that offer Internet access to the public; two that are Online Public Access Catalogs (OPAC), which replaced the card catalog; and four that have games for children.

Marotta recently retired from his job as director of faculty for the Monroe Board of Education.

In addition to his work for the library, he served on the Planning Board for three years and the recreation board for six years, and he was chairman of the grievance committee for eight years.

Marotta has retired to the Four Seasons Community with his wife, Eleanore. He serves as a member of the Building and Grounds Committee there.

Marotta said he will be spending time with his sons, David and Richard, as well as his grandson, Joseph. He also spends a lot of time reading and enjoys painting.