Every Vote Counts in Library Referendums

Although it was close, the Pleasant Valley Free Library succeeded for the third time in getting voter approval of an increase in Town funding, despite the clear opposition of the Town Supervisor.  The vote was 1,344 to 1,203, a difference of only 141 votes.  If just 71 voters had failed to support the referendum, the funding would have failed and the Library would have been forced to cut services. Although the new level of funding, $360,000 per year, is expected to last for three or four years before needing a review, service cuts would have been required starting in 2011 at the old funding level, largely because both the State and County have reduced their support, taking $30,000 off the annual budget (partly in higher fees to Mid-Hudson caused by revenue loss at that level).

Our voters were more supportive of the Pleasant Valley Library, than our neighbors in LaGrange and Beekman, but again not by very much.  If only 147 more voters in LaGrange had voted "yes," that Chapter 414 proposition would have passed--more than twice as many voters in all made a choice on the LaGrange issue as in Pleasant Valley, so the margin as a percentage was about the same, just in the other direction. In Beekman, the vote went "no" by even a smaller margin.  If only 44 more voters had filled in the oval for "yes," their funding would have passed.  Certainly every vote counts.

The success of the Pleasant Valley Free Library is largely due to the efforts of the Board, with some excellent help from the Friends of the Pleasant Valley Library and a few other citizens of the Town. By law, the Library staff cannot work on getting out the vote, but a major factor was the statistical background from Mid-Hudson that Library Director Daniela Pulice provided for the Board to use.  As in the two earlier Chapter 414 efforts, the leader was Library Trustee Steve MacNish.  But our real thanks have to go to the citizens of Pleasant Valley who continue to support the Library through what everyone knows are tough times.