Thursday, August 26, 2010

Leaders of Village of Sussex, Town of Lisbon Clash over Funding for Pauline Haas Public Library


Link to August 24 Sussex Sun article, "Lisbon-Sussex leader clash in library talks".

Excerpt: Sussex resident Len Anhalt, president emeritus of the library foundation, pleaded with village trustees and town supervisors to work together in reaching a new library agreement.

"Please do not play political games with this important facility that is such a treasure to the communities," he said.

There are no indications when negotiations between the Town and Village boards will begin.

Library Board Chairman Emil Glodoski described each section of the agreement to the Village and Town boards.

So far, the key issues appear to be whether to continue the present formula for funding and the library and how to extend the process for terminating the agreement.

Library Board members would like to extend the amount of notice a community has to give to terminate the agreement from 90 days to five years.

Gehrke has suggested each community's share of funds for the library should be based on how frequently residents in that community use the library.

He has said Sussex residents use the library more than Lisbon residents.

The present formula is based on the size of the tax base of each of communities, which happens to be about the same size, which means the communities almost equally divide their share of the cost of the library operations and debt
.

Related article: 
Will annexation resolution interfere with negotiations over joint library agreement?  (8/4/2010)
Proposal to change library funding formula gets cool reception.  (6/7/2010)
Town of Lisbon Chairman proposes new funding formula for library.  (5/31/2010)

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