Things to consider before voting on the library bond referendum.
Taxes will go up. Way up. Theb ond, including interest, will cost around $35 million. Your taxes will go up to pay these costs. On top of this, your taxes will climb to cover construction overruns, more staff and higher rent (at the Station and Parkville branches). Even more, your tax bill will inevitably have an annual increases, as it does every year, to cover an ever expanding budget.
The space is sufficient. One must question whether proponents for a new library suffer “building envy” because other communities have bigger ones. However, other than size, there is little difference between our library and theirs. Our main building has a reading room, study areas, children’s area, a/v section, computer area and Levels theater. Plus, unlike other communities, we have multiple branches.
Is there really a no need for the proposed project? Advocates for a new building claim the Main Library is “outdated” because it was built, way back, in . . . 1970. They claim it is stuck in the old 20th century. The Boston Public Library was opened in 1895. The New York Library opened in 1911. No one is saying they are obsolete because they are so “19th century”
Jeffrey Pittell
Great Neck
