ORANGE - Orange Mayor Eldridge Hawkins, Jr. confirmed May 18 that city library director Doris Walker has been suspended with pay for at least a week.

"The Orange Library Board of Trustees has suspended the director," said Hawkins while in City Hall about 9:30 p.m. May 18. "There may be a termination pending a hearing."


Hawkins, who is an ex-officio trustee, confirms trustees' president Rev. Verenander L. Hughes' earlier published statement that Walker has been suspended with pay after a special meeting.

Rev. Hughes, pastor of Bethel Baptist Church, has been on the appointed panel for at least two years. A May 18 call to his church office remains unanswered as of deadline.

Walker, who has previously been an East Orange library system superintendent, has been Orange Public Library Director for 15 years.

City Business Administrator John Mason, during the May 18 City Council meeting, meanwhile maintains that the lead paint removal work that has closed the library since May 1 will be completed in time for a June 1 reopening.

It is believed that the trustees' suspension of Walker was the result of how the matter of alleged lead-based paint and possible asbestos exposure was handled since early March. Health Officer Vincent DiFilippo ordered the library closed May 1.

DiFilippo, who said he had first received a complaint of lead-based paint flaking off the library's 1901 Stickler Memorial building's walls in early March, first ordered Walker and the trustees March 10 to correct the problem within two weeks.

The trustees authorized a $395,000 paint remediation contract with a Paterson contractor. DiFilippo meanwhile extended the grace period to April 30.

There is a claim that the director and trustees knew of the paint and asbestos problem since 2003. The library board and administration have been trying to raise funds for building renovation.

Hawkins' confirmation coincides with his administration taking interviews of at least three prospective library trustees May 19 past deadline. The mayor said that there were "several vacancies" on the nine-member panel to be filled.

The library's closure and related matters remain a council public speakers' topic. Main Street Business owner Jeffrey Feld asked Mason May 18 where the $395,000 came from; Mason said he did not know. Gloria Stewart questioned "the 11th hour nature" of the library's closing.

Hawkins, who was in City Hall for part of the council meeting, chose not to take his council dais seat during the May 18 session. The mayor, instead, watched the live Channel TV34 feed from the Council Conference Room.