דינסטאג ספעציעלע וואלן פאר לייבערי

Library vote hard one to read

By Chris McKenna
Times Herald-Record
cmckenna@th-record.com

Monroe – The day Marilyn McIntosh has eagerly awaited for years is finally at hand.
Next week, voters will say whether to proceed with a $12.9 million building proposal that would more than quadruple the space that the Monroe Free Library now occupies in its cramped bunker on Mill Pond Parkway.
McIntosh, the library director, is excited about all that would mean for a library wedged into 5,500 square feet since 1984: more space for books and CDs; a new room for teens to hang out in and listen to music; a computer lab; more elbow room for patrons and staff alike.
But victory Tuesday is anything but assured.
Some will balk at the cost of the building, which would also include space for the town's municipal offices, now squeezed into one of Orange County's dinkiest town halls.
And a large, unknown variable is the Village of Kiryas Joel.
The Hasidic community, which has little incentive to pay for a library it won't use, could easily snuff the project. But if the handful of men who control Kiryas Joel's two voting blocs stay neutral, the library has a shot.
One bloc has already chosen that course.
"At the moment, it doesn't seem that we're going to take a position," Pinkus Jakobowitz, a leader of the Kiryas Joel Alliance, said yesterday.
The larger establishment bloc hasn't revealed its position. Mayor Abraham Wieder and Gedalye Szegedin, the village administrator, didn't return calls for comment yesterday.
Library officials calculate that the project would initially raise town taxes by $1.94 per $1,000 of assessed value – or $97 a year for a home assessed at $50,000 a year. Monroe assessments are less than a fifth of market value.
Literature supporting the library project barely mentions the proposed municipal offices, reflecting the Town Board's ambivalence toward the project.
Two board members, Lori Currier-Woods and Jim Rogers, helped plan the proposal and strongly support it. But other members are so dubious about the cost that they negotiated last year to buy the M&T Bank building on Lake Street to serve as a new Town Hall.

What's it mean?
Should I read anything into the fact that if I live in the Village of Monroe, Town of Monroe or the Village of Harriman, I must drive to the senior center to vote on the proposed library/town hall bond issue?
If I live in Kiryas Joel, I can walk to the Women's Medical Center to vote.
Bob Mahran
Monroe

The case supporting the proposal

By Marilyn McIntosh

Director, Monroe Free Library


MONROE-On Tuesday, June 21, Monroe voters have the opportunity to improve and enrich our community by approving a much-needed new library and municipal center. This is a plan with BUILT-IN cost savings through a joint partnership between the library and Town of Monroe. We are, quite literally "sharing to save" taxpayers on the cost of this building.

Please consider:

1. The need for a new library is unquestioned. The Town's growth and our residents' passion for education have rendered the current library completely out-of-date. Parking is horrendous. Town offices, too, are woefully overcrowded.

2. The proposed site, off Route 208, is already owned by you, our residents. This represents a cost savings of probably AT LEAST $2 million, and the property has already been approved for this building project.

3. The project is the product of a year's worth of development and represents a significant compromise (and scaling back) of the original plan. Three of the five Town Board members actively support this project and helped to create it. According to Lori Currier Woods, Monroe Town Councilperson, "Combining the library with a town hall makes good financial sense. The building committee has worked hard to make sure this project will address important needs of the community without overburdening the taxpayer.


4. With inflation and increasing construction costs, future prices can only rise. We want to lock in a low interest rate TODAY.

5. The Town and library are in a strong financial position. The library has no current debt and our current building is appraised at $525,000.

6. No one likes to pay taxes. But the average homeowner (three bedrooms, two baths) will pay $8 a month for this project — a relatively modest cost for the value that this new library and municipal center will provide. Think of the possibilities this offers for our children, our seniors, our students and all residents of this Town.

7. We have already studied the impact of this project on our future budgets and our Trustees have pledged to remain fiscally conservative, as we have demonstrated in the past. After all, the library literally represents just a fraction (4 percent) of your total tax bill, and will continue to be this way.

8. Two of our Town Board members will tell you that this project is too expensive and that future budgets will spiral out-of-control. This is a scare tactic. We believe that proper investment in key facilities like our library actually promote investment in the Town, improve property values, and give our residents great service. That's why you pay taxes, right? To get services.

If you normally vote outside of the Village of Kiryas Joel, you will be voting at the Senior Center, 101 Mine Road (call the library at 783-4411 for directions or visit our Web site at www.monroelibrary.org). If you normally vote inside the Village of Kiryas Joel, you will vote at the Kiryas Joel Medical Building, 49 Forest Road.

Voting will take place from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. at both locations.

The case against the proposal


By Sandy Leonard

Supervisor, Town of Monroe


MONROE-There is no question we need larger facilities for the Town Hall and library, but is the proposed solution affordable?

My position has been clear from the beginning. I cannot support the current referendum.

The Monroe Free Library offered a view about the cost of the proposed new Town Hall-Library facility. There is no mention of the increase in operating expenses and the cost of the funding cannot be set until after the referendum is decided. An overall view of bonding and building costs, plus operating expense, is necessary for an informed decision. The Town will bear the responsibility for financing, building, administrating the project and owning the resulting building.

Consider some of the financial facts. The 12.9-million dollar bond is based on a building cost of $325 per square foot, above the national average even for the northeast.

At a workshop between Town representatives and library representatives, it was agreed that the cost of operations over the next five years could increase by 50 percent to more than $3 per $1,000 by 2011, based on the library's five-year budget projection. It was also agreed that the cost of the building should be represented as between $2 and $3 per $1,000. The cost of the building will depend on the conditions of the bond for funding.


Another factor is the term of borrowing; the library assumed a 20-year bond. The term and rate determine the amount of interest that the community would pay over the lifetime of the borrowing and that cannot be set until after the referendum is decided. An interest rate of between 4 and 4.5 percent rate seems reasonable, given current market conditions. The library used 4 percent, the lowest anticipated rate.

Including operations and maintenance with the estimated bond for construction, the combined tax rate could be $4.65 in 2006, increasing to $5.10 in 2010. The increase is due to the proposed increase in operating and maintenance expenses in the library's five-year plan. For a home assessed at $50,000, these tax rates translate to a cost of $232 per year or $19.33 per month in 2006 rising to $254 per year or $21.16 per month in 2010.

These calculations are based on the Town of Monroe's five-year plan that was used as the basis for discussion at the workshop meeting held with the library.

There are alternatives and we will work with the library to achieve their goals. However, the library's projected building cost of $1.94 per $1,000 of assessed value, which translates to $8 per month based on a house assessed at $50,000, is inadequate for residents to make an informed decision in the upcoming referendum on June 21.

Come out and vote at the Monroe Senior Center on Tuesday, June 21, from 6 a.m. until 9 p.m.

You decide.

Kiryas Joel
Village leaders urge vote on Monroe library

One of the biggest obstacles to the Monroe Free Library winning voter approval next week for a new $12.9 million building is the Village of Kiryas Joel, a Hasidic community with little reason to support a library it won't use – especially when its leaders are developing plans for their own library.
The Kiryas Joel Alliance, the smaller of the village's two voting blocs, declared earlier this week that it will stay neutral rather than urge supporters to flood the polls and vote no on the project.
But yesterday, the other shoe dropped.
The establishment bloc revealed that it, too, will stay neutral. But it's strongly encouraging residents to vote on Tuesday and, in the words of Village Administrator Gedalye Szegedin, giving them the information they need to decide.
That information, he said, includes an opinion piece written for the Photo News by Monroe Supervisor Sandy Leonard, encouraging residents to vote no.
Kiryas Joel leaders had the piece translated into Yiddish and published in the Kiryas Joel Bulletin yesterday – the same day it ran in the Photo News.

Chris McKenna

Keep Monroe beautiful
Downtown in the Village of Monroe is in decent shape now, but if we're not careful it's going to turn into a bunch of beat-up or empty buildings surrounded by ugly sprawl. To keep that from happening, we've got to make the right choices today. Here are three ways to keep downtown working:
Keep the library there, whatever it takes – build upward, move to another walkable downtown location, or expand next door. Moving the library to open space on O&R Road will take away a major downtown attraction and make traffic worse.
Likewise, keep the Town Hall downtown: It anchors the village, and moving it will just bring more cars wherever it goes.
Also, let's finish the Heritage Trail. A walking/biking path from Harriman to Goshen will bring visitors who spend money, and we could all use some exercise.
We get to vote on the library proposal June 21. In the meantime, we can think of many more ways to keep Monroe beautiful that will encourage business and allow the library the expansion it needs.
Bill Braine
Monroe