Some Clarifications (OK, maybe some are corrections....)

In my last post, I began by saying "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," which was true, but perhaps I should have said "For only the third time since 1999, the Pleasant Valley Free Library went to the voters asking for an increase, and once again the voters supported the Library.  Thanks to all." 


I also said "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," but I should have said "If just 71 of the people who voted yes, had voted no, the funding would have failed."  A lot of readers offered me various improvements on my arithmetic, but I believe that if you think of yes votes turning to noes, then the arithmetic is right, although the wording may have been unclear.


In a previous post, there was an error, which I corrected in one place but missed in the second. Pleasant Valley has the 5th largest circulation in the county, but I misread a chart and thought it was the 8th, so the 8 in the following sentence should be a 5: " Pleasant Valley Free Library currently has the 5th largest circulation of libraries in the County, but the salaries of our total combined staff averages $71 per hour opened, while the next smallest average of those 8 libraries is $122 per hour (and the others are considerably higher yet)."


That same post also had a correct statement that confused some readers.  I said, "So what portion of the proposed $95,000 increase would go for increase in staff salaries: 4.2%--and that would go only as modest increases to staff that are being paid just about the minimum wage now."  Please notice that the  4.2% is the amount of $95,000 devoted to increase in staff salaries, or $3,990 for the whole year.  The actual budgeted increase for any one salary  is either 3% or lower, so that the total increase is 2.96% of the 2010 budget.